I Don't Speak Japanese
by AvaniAcrux
Summary: On a lads night out to a Japanese restaurant, Jack gains an interest in a certain employee with freckles and earbuds. A Big Four (plus BH6 and Frozen) story. Rated T for some language and potential violence.
1. Table for Sixteen

**Hi guys, so I went to a Japanese restaurant recently and there was one staff member who really caught my eye, so I'm writing this fanfiction in honour of earbud boy (as he'll be crudely dubbed for the time being).**

 **Anyway, this was one of the stories in my HiJack modern one shots collection but I've suddenly been hit with a thousand brainwaves all at once so I feel like this story will definitely be too long to be classed as a one shot.**

 **Notes... canon ships in this story are; HiccupxJack (obvs), MeridaxAster, RapunzelxFlynn, AnnaxKristoff.**

 **Enjoy and leave a review if you liked it xx**

 **...**

"Jack, are 'ye ready yet?" Jack heard Aster call from downstairs.

"Just a sec, can't find my- ah, got it. Coming!" Jack found his wallet under a pile of clothes on the floor and stuffed it into his trouser pocket. Then he began thundering down the stairs two at a time. "Don't go without me, I'm- oh hey."

He stopped at the foot of the stairs. He needn't have worried about his friends leaving without him as they were all huddled around him now, looking impatient and slightly irritated.

"I couldn't find my wallet." He explained, in a slow voice, as if talking to a group of toddlers, "I could always leave it here if you of you guys'll pay for me."

"You could drink for England mate, and with the price at this place, you probably will." Aster laughed. "Bring your wallet."

"Where are we going again?" Jack asked, as the group made their way out of his house and filtered into two cars. He'd been invited for a lad's night out, but in all honesty, he had no idea where. Only that it wasn't the regular pub they usually went to.

"Yoji." Aster said.

"Gesundheit."

"It's a new sushi place downtown. Thought we'd give it a try." Aster explained as he and Jack clambered into the backseat of North's Honda. "The girls are meeting us there too. We've booked a table for sixteen."

"Jesus, can they even take that many people?" Jack shifted across to fasten his seatbelt as Kristoff shut the front passenger door and the car pulled away.

"Well, we booked, so let us hope so." North chuckled.

"So, wait, who's coming?" Kristoff swivelled around in his seat to ask Aster.

"Okay, so there's nine girls coming, I think, so that'd be Rapunzel, Merida, Astrid, Tooth, Ruffnut, Anna-"

"Yes! That's all I wanted to hear." Kristoff cheered.

"Elsa, Honey and Gogo… Think that's everyone." He repeated all the names again, this time counting on his fingers until he reached nine and nodded, "Yep, that's all of us."

"Who's in the other car?" Jack turned around and peered out the back window at the Fiat behind them. Flynn was driving, Sandy was chatting away animatedly next to him, and was that- yep, Tuffnut was leaning forward over Sandy's seat, pulling stupid faces at Jack.

Jack retaliated well, and within a few seconds, there was an ultimate battle of gurning going on between the two.

"Jack, will 'ye sit down. Yer' not a baby." Aster pulled Jack down and in his peripheral, Jack saw Tuffnut laugh from a victorious win.

"Yes Dad." Jack grumbled, resorting to staring out the window at the passing shops instead. "Where is it anyway?"

"I have no idea." North laughed. "That's what sat-nav is for."

On cue the sat-nav stuck to the windshield blurted out an instruction, "Turn left at the next roundabout."

"It is genius!" North bellowed. Despite being just as tech savvy as any other twenty-three year old, things that are actually practical like the sat-nav or the oven timer fascinateD him.

"So Yoji, was it? Sushi, that's like, raw fish, right?" Jack asked. "Not like you, Aster. I thought you were always like," He pulled his hair into a quiff similar to Aster's and deepened his voice, "Grill it 'til it's black, mate! Just barbecue that shrimp 'til you can't even tell what it is anymore! I want my steak cooked for seventeen hours! Ahhhh!"

The car went silent for a few moments, until Aster finally coughed and grumbled.

"I do not sound like that. Anyway, they do other stuff than sushi. Apparently only the local japanese customers actually order the sushi. I think I read somewhere that there's a charcoal grill thing they-"

"Grill!" Jack shouted, waving his arms around dramatically. "There's a grill! Everyone calm down, Aster stop drooling, you've got a girlfriend already."

Aster shot Jack a look of annoyance.

"No, but seriously, you've really done your homework into this. You _read_ somewhere?"

"Yeah, I was looking up the menus online, what's wrong with that?"

"Nothing, just- oh hey, look we're here." Jack cut off the conversation abruptly as the little checkered flag flashed up on the sat-nav screen and North pulled the car up into the restaurant car park.

"Oh man, I'm hungry!" Tuffnut yelled as he and Jack opened their car doors at the same time. Upon making eye contact, evil stares and funny faces were exchanged yet again.

Tuffnut and Jack had always been the immature funny guys of the group. Aster and North were the responsible parents. Kristoff and Flynn were sort of mature. They were both in committed relationships anyway. And then Sandy was just kind of there. Nobody really knew much about him. He just showed up one day and never really left, but he was a nice guy, as far as Jack knew.

Anyway, Tuffnut was Jack's best friend. Had been since middle school.

"Nobody told me it was a restaurant. I thought Yoji was just a new way of saying hello Aster had come up with on the spot, so he was all like 'Hey tuff, wanna come to Yoji with the guys tomorrow night?' and I was all like 'Yo gee, sure, yes to whatever you just said.' And then he left and I kinda just ate a bagel and fell asleep on the floor. And now we're here…" Tuff paused for breath. "I hate fish."

"This is a sushi restaurant…" Flynn strode up to them and Jack heard the beep of his little Fiat 500 as he locked it with the key fob. "Fish is probably compulsory here. If not, you'll have to pick off the vegan menu."

Tuff stopped dead in his tracks. "The horror!" He dropped to his knees and dramatically screamed to the heavens.

Flynn and Jack carried on following the rest of the group into the restaurant. Tuff must've caught up at some point because soon, his chattering rambles were audible again.

The restaurant, in Jack's opinion, was pretty classy. A lot fancier than he'd been expecting, and suddenly he felt underdressed in his grey chinos and pale blue dress shirt. There was a bar, but nobody was sat at it, and the rest of the restaurant was quite full, bar one giant long table right in the middle of the room.

"I'm gonna go ahead and guess that's our table?" Jack whispered to Flynn as the seven guys waited at the 'Please wait here to be seated' sign.

Jack noticed a large group of girls, all made up and looking glamorous in tight shiny dressed giggling and winking at them. Keeping up with his infamous flirty reputation, Jack shot the closest girl, a redhead, with his trademark smirk. He could've sworn the girl nearly fell out of her chair swooning.

A tall, dark haired man approached the sign and asked North for their reservation. It was quite dark in the restaurant so Jack hadn't even noticed the man's dark, but still professional looking uniform. Compared to the other waiters, this guys seemed more casual. Instead of the loose, suit trousers and leather lace up shoes the older waiters were adorning, he was wearing skinny jeans and grey converses.

"Party of sixteen?" He asked, glancing at the seven of us, looking puzzled.

"Yeah mate, but the girls aren't 'ere yet. They'll get here in the next ten minutes or so." Aster explained.

"Ah, of course. Would you like to sit at your table now or would you rather have a drink at our bar while you wait?"

"I'm there!" Jack marched off towards the bar the second he heard the offer.

"Typical Jack." The others all moaned in unison.

Jack wouldn't call himself an alcoholic, but he did love to drink. He never really got completely drunk, he had a really high metabolism so the alcohol effects wore off quickly. He just loved the taste and the feeling drinking gave him. Plus, he only ever drank on nights out, such as this. He would never drink at home.

He supposed drinking was only fun when you did it with friends.

Jack sat at an empty barstool, of which there was a lot of, and glanced about. "Uh, can I just have a pint?"

A waiter with Tony Stark style facial hair shook his head and handed Jack a menu. Jack stared at the laminated paper in confusion. All the drink names were in Japanese. How was he supposed to order from this?

"Uhh, what do you recommend?" Jack knew he sounded stupid, but he didn't want to order something if he had no idea what it was.

Still, the barman didn't speak but picked a bottle from a high shelf and held it out for Jack to look. Criss-crossy Japanese lettering covered the front of the label and Jack shrugged. "Dunno what it is 'cos I don't read Japanese but I'll try it."

Jack watched him pour out the amber liquid and upon tasting it, discovered it was merely a very sweet, strong apple cider.

"What'd you get?" Tuff oggled the drink in Jack's hand as he took a seat at the bar stool next to him.

"Something called Ringosai…" Jack peered at the bottle the barman had left in front of him. "It's good, try some."

Tuff jumped at the chance and took a sip from Jack's glass. When he finished, he put the glass back down, stared off into the distance and narrowed his eyes. "I have tasted the nectar of heaven and it beckons me to indulge in more." He suddenly slammed a five pound note on the bar, "And so I shall!"

Five minutes later, everyone had ordered drinks and the boys were chatting at the bar, waiting for the girls to arrive. Jack was looking forward to catching up with Astrid, Gogo and Ruffnut. It felt like it'd been month since they'd last met. It probably had been, to be honest.

He was suddenly chucked out of his own thoughts by a loud shout next to me.

"Urgh, nobody told me my sister was coming!" Tuff groaned.

The girls had arrived, it seemed, and they all looked spectacular.

...

 **So there we go. Don't worry, anyone who got sent over here from my HiJack collection. I'll be updating this as regularly as possible while also continuing my Modern One-shots and Would You Rather.**

 **Thanks, Avani xx**


	2. Kiss the Waiter

**Okay chapter 2 is complete. You guys better be happy with this one because I skipped my only two lessons today and hung out in my cafe, soaking up the wifi, in order to get this done for you. If you came here from the HiJack one shots, sorry for the redirection, but I have some awesome ideas.**

 **Shoutouts will be at the end x**

 **Anyway, here you guys are... chapter 2 pls enjoy xx**

 **...**

"Phwoar, get a look at Honey tonight, eh, eh?" Tuff elbowed Jack in the ribs and Jack couldn't help but stare as the nine girls filed in, all clutching tiny handbags, or were they purses? They were all in heels too, apart from Gogo, who, despite being the shortest member of the group, wouldn't wear heels if you paid her a million pounds.

Honey, on the other hand, towered above the others in six inch platforms that Jack couldn't comprehend the appeal of wearing, even though they made her legs look incredible.

All the girls, excluding Gogo, were in short dresses. A full spectrum of colours met Jack's eyes as the group approached the bar.

"Aster!" A flurry of bright red hair flew across the restaurant and collided with Aster.

"Merida, ah- hey girl, haven't seen ya in ages." Aster hugged her back, while at the same time, looking around at the rest of the guys, almost embarrassed. The girls started giggling.

"Yo Jack." Jack turned to be greeted by Gogo throwing her arm around his shoulders, which, considering her height, was no easy feat. "You guys getting drunk without us already?" She suddenly reached across and grabbed his Ringosai and took a gulp. "Oh man, that's good. I'll have one of these please." She waved to the barman who began pouring out another drink for her.

"Lookin' good Gogo, is that a new hair colour?" Tuff had wrapped his arm around Jack as well, catching him in a tight choke hold.

"Yeah actually. Thanks for noticing." Gogo unhooked her arm, and Jack gasped for breath. "Not sure I'm gonna keep this one though. It's a bit _too_ out there, if you get me?"

Jack finally had a chance to actually look at her. In place of the usual streak of bold purple, an electric blue colour faded into a dark violet. It looked amazing.

"No, you shouldn't change it." Jack said. "I like it a lot."

Gogo shrugged but Jack saw her cheeks turn slightly pink as she turned away, taking her drink to the table.

"Oh right, we sitting down now then?" Jack asked, directing the question to Aster mostly. However, he was currently having his face snogged off by the mass of orange curls on top of him.

Jack averted his eyes, and they instead trailed after the rest of the group, who were sitting at the table. It was a weird layout. In the center of the restaurant, there was a giant kitchen space with what looked like giant black hob surfaces lining the counters. The table they were supposed to be sat at surrounded this area in a big square, like a bar all looking in on the food being prepared. This also meant that Jack would need to choose wisely who he sat next to because it didn't look like he'd be able to talk to anyone other than the people a few seats either side of him without shouting across the chefs.

Anna, Kristoff, Rapunzel and Flynn were sat on the far end already. North, Sandy, Merida and Aster were starting to take their seats on the next side of the square. Elsa, Tooth and Honey went and sat opposite.

"Hey Jack, sit next to me?" Ruff suddenly sidled up beside Jack, putting on a deep, husky voice and leaning her head on his shoulder.

"Woah woah woah, bros before hoes, dude!" Tuff shoved Ruff away from Jack and she collided with the converse waiter. Luckily, he was only holding a stack of menus, which he caught easily. Somehow, he kept a smile on his face anyway.

"Screw you Tuff, I'm just tryna' be nice."

"Go be nice to someone else then."

"Like who? The waiter?"

"Yeah whatever, go do your dumb girly frolicking with him."

"Fine!" Ruff yelled and quickly, she grabbed the waiter by the collar and planted a hard kiss on his lips. This time, he _did_ drop the menus. The whole stack clattered to the floor, causing the entire restaurant to look up.

Tuff was howling with laughter. The waiter's eyes were blown wide in shock. And honestly, Jack felt for the guy. He wasn't used to Ruff and Tuff's eccentric personalities and it took new people weeks, if not months to get to grips with them usually. This guys, what did his name badge say- Tadashi? had been thrown in head first, or should that be tongue first?

"Yeah alright sis, pretty sure he's gonna puke if you don't let go." Tuff dragged his twin away from Tadashi, who was frozen in place, looking completely shellshocked.

Ruff winked at him before flouncing away to sit next to Honey. They immediately began gossiping and laughing.

"Sorry about that, man." Jack picked up the fallen menus and restacked them again before balancing them in Tadashi's still outstretched arms. "That's pretty normal behaviour for Ruff."

"Yeah, she's a total Nutcase!" Tuff cackled, laughing at his own pun.

Tadashi shook himself off after a few seconds and then began handing out the menus to the rest of the party, being sure to give Ruff's to Honey and stepping widely around her as if terrified she might pounce again.

In the end, Jack sat in between Tuff and Gogo, with Astrid on the other side of her. He noticed as he looked around the table that everyone else had a Ringosai to drink. Trendsetter Jack, he thought as he skimmed across the starter menu.

"What're you guys having?" Astrid asked the row. "I mean, are we doing starters or...?"

"Yeah sure, why not." Gogo smiled. "Everyone cool to have starters?" She raised her voice, addressing the entire table, who all nodded and cheered back.

"I can't even pronounce most of these." Jack muttered. "Tori Karaage sounds alright though."

"I'm gonna go for the Yakitori." Astrid announced. Jack looked back to the menu and found it. Yep, as he thought. The most expensive starter on the menu… Astrid was loaded though, so he wasn't surprised. He _was_ surprised however when pretty much everyone else also ordered it. Every but Tuff, who ordered the Ika Karaage.

"What's that?" Jack asked once Tadashi had disappeared back into the kitchen with their orders.

"Squid, crispy fried squid served with fresh chilli and lime." There was a pause. "I'm gonna hide it in Ruff's hair when she's not looking." Tuff grinned.

"You're unbelievable." Gogo sighed.

At the same time as the starters, they'd had to order their mains. Jack had, despite his teasing Aster earlier, gone for the Kamo Charcoal Grill, which was apparently duck breast with sticky rice and vegetables.

Jack didn't fancy sushi. Plus, he wanted to watch his food being made on the grill in front of him. He thought that'd be pretty cool.

Jack spent the next ten minutes avoiding Aster, who was trying to catch his eye.

"Astrid, you look amazing." Jack only just noticed her dress. It was a dark burgundy red with silver studded detail on the shoulders and waist. Her hair was in it's signature side plait but her face was a lot more made up than usual. She looked stunning.

"Aw thanks Jack, slightly overdressed though." She glanced down to my clothes.

"Hey, I thought this was pretty smart until you all waltzed in ready for the grand ball."

"Yeah well, it's Elsa's birthday next week so we're going out after this." Astrid explained.

"Where?" Tuff butted in.

"That new place that just opened upstairs in the Sovereign, Vision I think it's called? Apparently it's really good in there and since it's just opened, they're letting anybody in and there's no queue."

The Sovereign was the local pub that the group usually hung out in. Jack had no idea they were putting a club above it…

"You could come too, y'know, if you wanted to." Astrid blushed and then said quickly, "Y'know, if all you guys wanted to come party too…"

Jack smiled.

"Yeah sure, sounds fun."

At that exact moment, a massive burst of fire suddenly erupted right in front of Jack's face. He jumped and shielded his face before he realised the flames were coming from the grill and there was a glass screen protecting him from it. The heat was incredible though.

The chef grinned at them all as they gawked in fascination at the flames. He was adding more oil to the meat he was frying, flipping and tossing it about with a spatula. It looked good.

The chef suddenly hit a bell which rang a lot louder than Jack expected it to and shouted something over his shoulder in Japanese. A few moments later, a door to the left of them opened and a person wandered in, a large tupperware box in their arms. The person dumped it onto an island counter behind the chef and opened it. Jack saw it was filled with vegetables, all green and glistening from being freshly rinsed.

Then the person turned around.

It was a boy, not much older or younger than Jack himself, by the looks of it. He was wearing a green plaid shirt with a dirty white apron on top and blue latex gloves. They were wet. Jack supposed he'd just finished washing the vegetables himself.

What stood out most to Jack though, was the boys face. Tanned, freckled and set in a bored permanently expression. A grey beanie covered his hair, but Jack could see it was reddish-brown from the thick curls escaping the sides and back.

The whole time the boy moved around the kitchen, using tongs to dump piles of the vegetables on each of the grills, Jack watched in fascination. He had no idea why this guy was so interesting to him.

Maybe it was the earbuds.

 **...**

 **I actually had to do a lot of research for this chapter. Those dishes are actually based on what I had and what all my friends had when we went out. And Ringosai is Japanese for Apple Festival, which I think is a cool name for a drink...**

 **Also, well done to all of you who guessed the waiter was Tadashi. I felt sorry for him in this chapter, for sure...**

 **Shoutouts**

 **JakeTheStoryTeller: Thanks for the review! I will try to take my time but I absolutely hate making you all wait too long for updates xx**

 **pikidreamworks: You were right first time, don't worry! And I think Hiro and Pitch will be making appearances later on in the story so you weren't too far off x Thanks for the review xx**

 **Two of the broken masks: Here's Hiccup for you! Sorry it took a while for him to make an appearance but I felt like I needed to get some backstory on the other characters first. Thanks for reviewing x**

 **Snowflakesandangels: There will be more one-shots on the other story, but for now, I'll be focussing on this one. Thanks for the review on Would You Rather too xx Thanks so much for the review xx hope you liked this chapter!**

 **...**

 **Please review if you liked this chapter and also, what do you think of MeridaxAster? (human Aster I mean) It's a random ship I came up with one day and I think it's cute and it works.**


	3. Coming to the Club?

**Okay, sorry this one took a bit longer than usual, but I have some good news. I'm officially on my Summer holidays now! Yayyy. Unfortunately, that also means I'll be working five days a week so updates may be a bit all over the place...**

 **Anyways, here's chapter three. Enjoy x**

...

Smack!

Jack groaned as another lump of sticky rice landed in his hair. Tuff did _not_ have good chopstick control.

Their food had only just been put on the table and seconds in, Tuff was already making a complete mess of himself.

"Hey, watch it!" Jack shielded his face as another lump of rice came hurtling his way. It bounced off his arm and stuck to the table with a wet splat. "Dude, urgh…" Jack ran his hands through his hair, trying to get rid of the rice clumps.

"Sharing is caring, bro." Tuff laughed through a mouthful of white rice. "Hey, you want some of my squid?" He shoved the crisp curly tentacle at my face, but immediately dropped it into his lap when the chopsticks snapped past each other. "Eww, I'm gonna smell gross for the rest of the night!"

"You already do, squidface!" Ruff shouted from her seat.

"Shut it, chickenbreath!"

"Make me, dungbeetle!"

At this point, Jack turned his attention away from the twins (they'd be going on like this for a while, he thought) and carried on with his starter instead. It was good, although a lot like a plate of glorified KFC with a posh watery sauce on the side.

It'd been ten minutes since earbud boy had left. After finishing with the vegetables, he'd tucked the half empty tupperware box under his arm and disappeared again through the back door, mouthing along silently to a song.

Jack found himself constantly flicking his eyes to the door every few seconds.

He hoped the boy would come back soon.

"Jack, you alright?" Astrid pulled him out of his stare, and he whipped around to see Astrid and Gogo looking at him. "You seem a bit out of it."

"Yeah yeah, I'm just- I like watching the cooks, y'know?" Jack stumbled on his words, but the girls seemed satisfied with this excuse nonetheless.

A few minutes later, their plates were cleared away by Tadashi and the conversation turned to how many Pokemon everyone had caught on Pokemon Go. Jack had become slightly obsessed with the app for a few days when it first came out, but now it was kinda boring. He'd deleted the app that morning actually. Tuff and Ruff could be heard shouting, arguing about which of them had caught a Meowth first.

Jack decided to zone out at this point and instead turned to talk to Astrid and Gogo, who, despite being the tomboys of the girl group, weren't interested in the craze either.

Their topic of conversation somehow landed on time travel and what they'd do first if they could go anywhere in time.

"I'd go back to the middle ages and hand out chocolate bars and Coke cans and high five everyone, that'd be funny as hell. Probably mess up the timelines and cause the end of the world though." Gogo sighed.

"Aw, I wouldn't be that exciting. I'd just go back and redo all my exams, y'know, actually make an effort and get good grades…" Astrid shrugged. "What about you, Jack?"

"Um," He paused, thinking of all the possibilities. "Well, I suppose I should go back and do something helpful like kill Hitler or stop Disney from buying Star Wars, but… I'd probably just write down the lottery numbers and then go back and become a millionaire."

"Good plan." Gogo nodded. "I'd join you on that, I think- Aw yeah, food's here!"

Tadashi reappeared behind Tuff and placed plates in front of him and I. Then he served Gogo and Astrid too. How the heck had he been carrying four plates at once? Jack had had a job in a coffee shop since he was fourteen and he still hadn't mastered carrying more than two at a time.

They all tucked in immediately. The duck was incredible, and Jack also smiled when he ate the vegetables. They were delicious too…

"Hadokku!" The chef had suddenly reappeared right in front of Jack. Jack wondered for a second what that might mean, when the door banged open and _he_ came back in, this time carrying a large black bottle of something.

"Nani?" The boy replied, keeping his body half out the door, only his head peeking out. Jack noticed one of his earbuds was still in. His voice was different to what Jack had expected, but he couldn't figure out _how_ it was different. It just was.

The chef started barking words at him in Japanese and the boy nodded a few times before leaving again.

Jack kept his eye on the door as he carried on eating. It was difficult though, because with almost every bite, he had to close his eyes, appreciating the unbelievable taste.

The rest of the evening flew by too fast for Jack's liking. They had dessert and then stayed for a few more drinks before beginning to debate the bill.

This was the only part of nights out Jack disliked.

Elsa and Merida ended up in a fight over how much tip to leave and in the end, Jack decided to put in an extra three quid as apology to Tadashi, who, after having to put up with us all night, deserved it.

When the group finally stood up, ready to leave, Jack quickly said he needed to use the toilet and rushed out to the bathrooms.

Once inside the ridiculously clean, white toilets, he checked himself in the mirror.

"Crap." He cursed, spotting a stain on the collar on his shirt. Tuff had not only ruined his hair, but his shirt as well. He cleaned himself up as best he could, ruffling his dyed white hair to remove the final few grains of rice and re-perfecting the style.

He often got a lot of strange looks and stares from strangers in the street for his hair and pierced ears, but he didn't care. He liked it, and so did all his friends. Especially Gogo, who'd actually been the one who suggested he did something exciting to shake up his boring brown hair.

He also wore blue prescription contacts most days. They were pretty uncomfortable, so he didn't wear them everyday, but his natural chesnut eye colour just didn't look quite right with his shocking white hair. Plus he hated wearing his glasses.

Most of Jack's friends didn't know he wore contacts. Only a few of his closest friends, like Tuff and Astrid.

Jack's confidence was hugely affected by his look. He used to be really shy, until he befriended Aster, Gogo and a few others on a school project. They were nice to him, and helped him come out of his shell.

Jack Frost.

The kid with the white hair and blue eyes.

That was how everyone remembered him and he was fine with that. It was better than not remembering him at all, anyway.

Jack continued to stare himself down in the mirror.

There was one thing nobody knew about him though. Not even Tuff.

And everyday he wanted to tell them. Every time he met any of his friends, he always tried to say it, but every time, he couldn't.

The truth was, Jack Frost, the kid with the white hair and blue eyes, liked boys.

…

"So, are you guys coming to the club?" Astrid asked excitedly, nearly tripping on her way out of the restaurant.

"I don't know. North's my ride home, so I'll have to ask him first." Jack replied. He turned to find him, when Astrid's hand caught his.

"You can hire a taxi, duh! You weren't actually planning on driving home yourselves, were you?"

She was right. All of them were more than a little tipsy. If they were already drunk, why not go out for more?

"Yeah sure then. Why the hell not?" Jack grinned, following the group, as they began walking down the road towards the Sovereign.

On the way there, Jack glanced at the time on his phone. Then, immediately had to check it again because he wasn't actually paying attention the first time.

8:57pm.

The 'club', as it'd been dubbed, was fantastic. Three floors, all set back a little each time with balconies looking down onto the lower floors with spiral metal staircases dotted around. Strings of lantern lights shone from every wall and the dance floor was alive with a booming bass track.

Jack was also surprised by how easy it'd been to get in. The bouncer didn't ask for any ID, even though Sandy looked about twelve.

The second the sixteen party of them entered the club, they dispersed off in different directions and before Jack knew what was happening, he was alone.

This was not ideal, he thought as he swam his way through the crowd of dancing bodies, towards the bar, where he assumed at least a few of his friends had gravitated towards.

Nope, apparently not. Jack really didn't want to spend his entire night scouring the club for his friends so he took a seat at the bar and ordered a pint. If he just stayed here, someone would come to him eventually.

So that's where Jack found himself sitting for a few minutes, sipping his drink, and watching the dancers, most of them in couples, the occasional big group of girls. Jack knew most of the songs that were being played, but only from hearing them on the radio or in adverts. Heavy bass and dubstep wasn't really his style.

After ten minutes, he got a bit fed up of waiting and decided to ascend to the next level to continue his search.

He found all fifteen of his friends sprawled out in a giant assortment of sofas and armchairs on the edge of the balcony on the second floor. As he approached, drink in hand, they cheered.

"Where'd you disappear to, Jack?" Aster laughed. "We thought you mighta' got lucky already, or something," He chuckled again, but quickly stopped when Merida, who was lying across his lap, leaned up and planted a kiss on his chin.

Jack walked over and flopped onto an empty armchair right next to the balcony railings.

"See you got a drink already?" Flynn raised an eyebrow, holding up his own pint for a cheers. Jack did it, but only because it was already in his hand.

To be honest, he was angry with the lot of them. From where he was sat, he had clear view of the bar. Which meant that the whole time he'd been sat down there, they could see him, but they'd done nothing about it, and then had tried to act surprised when he'd come traipsing up the stairs.

He blocked them all out for a few minutes, as he watched the bar down below. It was pretty dark down there, but his view allowed him to see the bar, the dance floor and the front door too. It seemed like an endless stream of people that came pouring in, with no one leaving. How was there enough room in here?

He checked his phone again.

9:48pm.

He didn't want to be here. This was boring. And his 'friends' had put him in a sour mood. He could go back to the restaurant…

He could go see earbud boy again…?

 _No, Jack. Jesus, don't be such a creep. That's weird._

He was about to get up and leave when he saw a familiar face come in through the front door.

 _No way…_

Earbud boy strolled in and took a seat at the bar, on the exact stool Jack had been sat at a few minutes ago.

...

 **First off, I have never been to a club (as I'm about as social as a tortoise) so all of that was completely made up. It sounded like a cool place though, I think. Also, sorry for the lack of HiJack so far, but I promise next chapter is going to be good. I have an amaaaaazing idea. So far, we've got a slightly tipsy Jack and a Hiccup (sorry, earbud boy) who doesn't know what he's getting himself into.**

 **Two of the broken masks: Thanks for your review xx And sorry there wasn't much Hiccup in this chapter, but there'll be a lot more in the next chapter. Thanks for your support xx**

 **PLS PLS PLS REVIEW IF YOU LIKED THIS STORY BECAUSE REVIEWS ARE UNBELIEVABLY MOTIVATIONAL FOR ME (plus, I'm really enjoying writing this story, and I'd like to know if you're enjoying reading it too) Thanks, Avani xx**


	4. One More Shot!

**This update is pretty late, i know, and in the time I haven't written, I've gotten so many followers on this story and can I just say a massive THANK YOU to all of you readers because I love you and all your support, despite how terrible I am with update scheduling. Anyways, just a warning for this chapter, I have never been drunk, so if any of this is ridiculously farfetched, I'm sorry. I'm just guessing and making it dramatic. Enjoy x**

...

Stars burst in Jack's vision as he rubbed his eyes hard, trying to figure out if he was was seeing things or not. Nope, there he was. Earbud boy was sat at the bar on the next floor down, ordering a drink from the same waiter who'd given Jack a drink less than three minutes ago.

Talk about bad timing… He thought, scowling inwardly as he continued to stare at the boy. He wasn't in any danger of being spotted staring at him. Between Jack and the balcony railings, a thick grey pillar obstructed him from view of anyone on the lower levels. The only way the earbud boy would ever see him would be if he stood up, took ten steps to the right and squinted.

Jack watched as the boy took a sip of his drink, spinning the barstool around to face the dancefloor. Jack scanned the room quickly.

Was he here all alone?

His question was instantly answered as another familiar face appeared next to earbud boy. Ruff's victim, the waiter, Tadashi? Jack checked his phone for the time again.

9:55pm.

He supposed the two of them could have finished their shifts at the restaurant and this was a regular thing for them to do in the evening.

But this club was brand new…

It was opening night so maybe they were doing the same thing as everyone else, simply checking out the place, scoping it out.

Yeah sure, that was it.

Jack continued to watch closely as they talked. He couldn't lip-read but instead looked out for their body language and hand gestures. Darn that beanie. Jack couldn't even see the guy's face, let alone his expression. Tadashi looked happy enough though.

Wait- Jack froze. Were Tadashi and Earbud-? Were they a thing? They looked similar in age and had the same sense of style and apparently, conversation topics too.

His heart sank, but he continued to stare for the next fifteen minutes as they sat there, drinking and chatting, occasionally bursting into simultaneous fits of laughter.

Jack was beginning to get very hot and bothered. He rolled up his shirt sleeves and undid the first two buttons at his neck. But it didn't help. He knew it wasn't the temperature that was wrong. It was his own brain whirring and torturing him with impossible scenarios and stupid ideas that weren't at all reasonable. He just needed to calm down, just needed to-

"Jack, you coming?"

"Huh, what?"

"Are you coming?" Astrid repeated herself, "We're all gonna go burn up the dancefloor. You coming or what?" She was suddenly dragged away by Merida, who was giggling excitedly, one arm still hooked with Aster's.

"Oh yeah yeah, sure." Jack scrambled to his feet and followed the group down the spiral staircase to the lower floor.

Oh crap, the lower floor… Jack blanched as he realised what was happening. Earbud boy was gonna see him. See him making a complete ass of himself on the dancefloor.

Truthfully, Jack couldn't dance for shit.

"Oh man, I love this song!" Anna squealed as the music tempo shifted and a pop song Jack knew but didn't especially like blasted around the room. Not sure what else to do, Jack just stuck close to Tuff, who, Jack noticed with a jolt of worry, was staggering slightly with each step.

"Hey man, you alright?" He asked, "You don't wanna maybe sit down for a minute?"

"Lighten up dude, I'm completely sober…" Tuff hiccuped, "Hey, you know what?" He leaned right over, resting his chin on Jack's shoulder, "Y-you should go ask that chick to dance with us. She pretty hot, am I right?"

"Tuff, that's Ruffnut." Jack sighed.

"Oh. Right. Yeah, I knew that." He scoffed. "Anyway, bros before hoes! Dance with me, Frost!" He grabbed Jack's wrist and pulled. Jack suddenly found himself right in the centre of the dancefloor, completely blocked in by masses of bodies on all sides. Tuff was dancing, if you could call it that. Did gesticulating widely and headbanging like some insane rockstar count as dancing?

Jack tried to dance too. He really tried to enjoy himself, but his mind was elsewhere.

"Jack!" A voice pricked his ears up. He spun around and looked for the source of the voice. Astrid was stood at the bar, waving. Jack made his way over to her, swimming out of the sea of people.

"Hi." Jack smiled as he took a seat at the bar next to her, and slouched over the counter.

"What the heck is up with you tonight, Jack?" She asked. "You're usually the unstoppable party animal of the group, so what's going on?"

Jack saw both worry and annoyance in her eyes.

"I dunno, I'm just not feeling too great at the moment." He admitted.

"You were fine at the restaurant though. Is it because we got split up when we first got here? I'm real sorry about that Jack. I was gonna come down and find you, but I assumed you'd just gone and hooked up with someone like Aster said." She paused. "You know what? I know why you're acting so weird. You're not nearly drunk enough to have any fun. Nobody really likes clubs unless they're pissed out of their heads first… Can we get some shots over here please?"

"Astrid-" Jack began to protest, but then he realised that she was right. He wasn't drunk at all, or at least not enough to be having a good time. If he just lightened up a little, the night would go much better, right?

The waiter poured out two shot glasses and placed them in front of the two of them.

"To not being sober for work tomorrow!" Jack cheered, raising the glass.

"Yeah, that's the spirit!" Astrid clinked glasses with him and simultaneously, they both necked their drinks in one. "Ha, spirit, get it?"

"Two more and that'll do me for a few hours, I reckon." Jack said thickly, still screwing up his face from the strength of the alcohol running down his throat.

"Same for me then."

The waiter gave them two more each and they were immediately emptied too. Jack felt good now. With good, warm alcohol running through his bloodstream, he felt like himself again, how he was supposed to feel at the club. Carefree and irresponsible, and most importantly, fun.

Earbud boy completely fled his mind, and all he wanted to do was find Tuff and give him a run for his money with an epic air guitar battle. Now where was he?

"Hey Tuff-! Wait, hang on, one more." And Jack downed one more shot, which stung his throat but that only meant it was working. "C'mon Astrid, let's dance!"

"Ye-heah! That's the Jack I love!" Astrid whooped, downing her fourth shot too and grabbing Jack's outstretched hand. "Let's find the rest of the guys!"

The rest of the night went by in a bright, loud, fuzzy blur. Jack forgot how many shots he'd taken after his eighth, and to be honest, he didn't care after that point. He was having way too much fun to worry about anything besides the beat of the crappy pop music and his killer dancing.

...

It had just gone one in the morning when things started to get a little too bright, a little too loud, and way too fuzzy. Jack managed to worm his way out of the sweaty mosh pit of dancers and into the bathrooms. It took him three or four tries to even open the door.

"Wow… I am soooooo dru-unk." He laughed as the door finally gave way and he crashed through it. He managed to catch himself before colliding with a few guys he didn't know who were just coming out. They laughed giddily at him and then left.

Jack leaned over the sink, staring at himself in the mirror for the second time that night. The door banged shut but he barely heard it. The bathroom mirror was spinning, doing full barrel rolls, causing his face to look distorted. It made his eyes hurt. The thumping bass, still deafeningly loud wasn't helping either.

Wait, the mirror wasn't spinning… It was Jack's head.

What was wrong with him? Jack had never been such a lightweight… He was famous for being able to hold a crazy amount of liquor for his size, especially compared to Kristoff and Flynn, who'd usually be out after just two beers, despite being a good head taller than him.

But he had taken four shots tonight, as well as at least four beers.

Maybe he _had_ gotten a little carried away?

"Nah," He laughed, shaking his head and giving himself his trademark grin in the mirror before exiting back out into the flashing strobe light forest

He'd barely taken two steps out of the bathroom when he was tackled against the wall and enveloped by another body pressing against his. A pair of lips smashed against his and he gasped through his nose in surprise.

He wanted to push whoever it was off of him, but at the same time, why should he? Coherent thoughts weren't something Jack was concerned with right now. He kissed the mysterious person back, laughing inbetween snogs and enjoying the strong taste of whiskey staining his partners tongue.

They made out for what felt like ages, but all too soon, the lips disappeared and Jack leaned forward, wanting them back, before opening his eyes.

"What the- Rapunzel?!"

"Oh crap, Jack!" She cried, grabbing fistfuls of her hair. "I thought you were Eu- Flynn! I'm so sorry, it's way too dark in here. Oh my god, I'm so embarrassed!" She was clearly distraught, and Jack nearly laughed at her. After all, she did look kinda funny with her hair all mussed up and lipstick smeared across her face.

"S-alright, Punzie." Jack smirked, "You're not a half-bad kisser, anyway."

"Oh shut up." She snapped. "This never happened, okay?" She fixed him with a piercing 'You tell anyone and I'll kill you' stare before stomping off again.

Jack didn't know what to do now. That had been a weird experience, all right… He had a feeling he wouldn't be able to look Flynn in the eye for a while, that was for certain.

He stood there, slumped against the wall for a few minutes, smiling stupidly to himself. It was weird. He wasn't that close to Rapunzel, but something about sharing a kiss with her made him feel strange. Betraying Flynn also made him ashamed, even though it wasn't technically his fault.

"Yo, Jack!" Gogo was clicking her fingers in his face.

Speaking of being able to hold your liquor…

"Hey, what happened to you? You alright?" She was staring at him like she'd seen a ghost.

"Y-yeah, I'm good." Jack said, trying to keep his voice flat, "Just y'know, watching…"

"Okayy, well I'm gonna pretend that's not creepy at all and just leave you to do whatever the heck it is you're doing… Catch ya later!" And she bounced off again, instantly being swept away by the tide of people.

As he continued to watch, which, in Jack's mind, wasn't creepy at all, his stomach churned and his head continued to swim circles. Eyes darting from light to light, ears throbbing with every bass drop, it was all getting to be too much.

Alright. Nope. Jack was definitely going to throw up. At inhuman speed, he spun around and ran back into the bathroom, shutting himself into a cubicle and immediately retching into the toilet bowl.

"Urgh, god…" He groaned after the majority of his Kamo Charcoal Grill splashed into the water.

He continued to throw up for a few minutes, until he was dry heaving painfully. His throat stung and his breath must've been disgusting, but he couldn't stay in here all night. Besides, throwing up was a pretty regular part of a night out for Jack. It usually didn't happen until at least the morning after though…

As he flushed the toilet and returned to his spot at the mirror, a pale, frightened face looked back at him. It took Jack a moment to realise it was his reflection. The real Jack and his pale-faced imposter stared at each other for a few seconds.

And then the world was tipping sideways. The imposter disappeared, as did the mirror. Jack heard a loud crack and then his vision went black.

...

 **Okayyyyy, so how'd you like that one? Jack's night isn't quite going to plan, is it? I'm sorry if you're getting impatient with the lack of HiJack so far, but I pinky promise that it'll all kick off next chapter.**

 **Shoutouts**

 **JakeTheStoryTeller: Thank you x and also, that's some good (although not motivational) life advice! I'm pretty sure people with any social skills whatsoever don't spend their time writing HiJack fanfiction and reading yaoi manga so it's fine... hehe hehe *sigh* And your reviews aren't annoying at all, I love talking to readers and other authors so don't worry!**

 **Snowflakesandangels: Awww thanks x well here you go. Bet you weren't expecting this to happen though, were ya? Neither did I tbh, it just slipped out and my fingers just wrote it without my brain's consent lol. Thanks for the review xx**

 **Two of the broken masks: I'm planning on having Hiccup's first language be English, but then he speaks Japanese when he's at work because the boss insists, so don't worry about too much translating, but I'll definitely give you a message if I need some help so thank you xx**

 **A Frozen Shadow: Thank you very much, I shall definitely try x Thanks for following too!**

 **RedxGhost50: First off, nice username! And thanks for the review, I'll try to update soon, but I can't make any promises unfortunately...**

 **Okay, so this chapter was a little longer than usual, but hope you enjoyed nonetheless. I'm really not great at writing kiss scenes and even though this one wasn't really a significant one, I hope it was oka-yy?**

 **PS did you notice how Rapunzel nearly said something she shouldn't have? How funny would it be if drunk!Jack found out Flynn's real name...?**

 **Until next time, thanks for reading. Review if you want more, Avani x**


	5. Some Fresh Air

Well here there everybody. Sorry this update took a while (like a month Avani you lazy prick...) but I've been kinda preoccupied with other stuff. But in good news, I finally forced my boyfriend to sit down and watch RotG with me so now he can finally understand my fangirling over Jack. I wrote half of this chapter while listening to Darude Sandstorm on repeat so I apologise for anything weird. That song does strange things to my brain... Without further ado, enjoy x

...

Hiccup

Hiccup had been getting more and more annoyed with Tadashi as the night went on. He knew Tadashi was well aware they both had the early shift tomorrow, yet here he was, more drunk than Hiccup had ever seen, dancing erratically with some random girl with electric blue streaks in her short black hair.

He was sure he recognised her from somewhere…

At this point, Hiccup was both embarrassed and relieved to be completely sober. He didn't like to drink much anyway, so it wasn't a problem for him in that sense. He _had_ been slightly worried about Tadashi going off the rails though, so he'd agreed to come check out this new club with him.

More like he insisted to come join him…

After a while, Hiccup finally caught Tadashi's attention and signalled to him that he was going to go the bathroom. He didn't need to go, he just wanted to get out of the intense lights and music. It wasn't that he didn't like clubs. He liked concerts and festivals, and in many ways, they're similar to nightclubs. But at the same time, they're nothing alike at all.

He didn't wait to see if Tadashi got his message, what with his new girlfriend slung around his waist, grinding against him and giggling.

"Whatever," Hiccup grumbled under his breath as he made his way around the edge of the room, rather than deciding to wade through the dancers.

Tadashi wasn't really a close friend to him anyway. He was more of a work colleague who just so happened to be the same age, and who seemed to enjoy spending his free time with Hiccup.

Hiccup supposed he also kinda felt sorry for the guy. The only thing he knew about Tadashi's home life was that he and his younger brother lived with their aunt because their parents had died when they were both young.

Tadashi always shrugged off talking about his family though. Though Hiccup had met his brother, Hiro, quite a few times when he turned up at the restaurant back door, pestering Tadashi for a ride home, or some food from the kitchen.

A few times on his way to the bathroom, he had to stop and look around for Tadashi.

Just checking…

 _God Hiccup, he's technically older than you. Leave him alone!_ Hiccup's subconscious was scolding him.

Hiccup made it to the bathroom and pushed open the door. It was empty, as far as he could see, but one of the stalls was locked so he assumed there was someone in there. The bathroom was pretty clean, surprising for a night club, but then this place had only just opened so the regular drunks and stoners had yet to arrive and destroy it all.

He stood in front of one of the many shiny new mirrors and washed his hands in the sink. He wasn't sure why. Maybe working in the restaurant everyday for the past two weeks had just made his used to washing his hands all the time. Hiccup was just wandering across the room towards the dryers, when something caught his eye.

Red. Only a few splodges here and there, but red liquid spotted the tiled floor. It didn't take a genius to work out what that liquid was, and immediately Hiccup called out to the locked stall, where the blood trail disappeared into.

"You alright in there?"

No response.

"Hey, can you hear me?" Hiccup knew this was weird. If there was someone in there, they were most likely taking a dump and didn't want some random guy asking them questions, but a nagging feeling at the back of his mind was making him worried.

There was still no reply.

What if there was a dead person in there? _No shut up Hiccup. Why the heck would there be a-?_ But what if there was…?

"Alright, I'm coming in." And he used his car key to twist open the lock and push the cubicle door open.

He was completely unprepared for what he saw.

…

Jack

Jack awoke to the sound of someone shouting, and something hitting his shoulders repeatedly. Noise, pain and a headache that threatened to split his head in two were all he could process in that moment.

"Urgh, w-what-?" He managed to slur, trying to raise his hands but failing. Instead, he cracked open his eyes, immediately squinting against the bright bathroom lights filling his brain.

"Hey man, are you alright?"

Someone was speaking, to him? Probably.

"Uh-huh," Jack croaked back, opening his eyes all the way and swallowing thickly. His whole mouth tasted disgusting.

"Can you- Do you wanna sit up?" The voice was still there. Jack didn't recognise it, and that freaked him out a bit.

He didn't reply, but strained to sit himself up, finding nothing behind him to lean on, and nearly crashing back down again. He was rescued at the last second by a pair of hands grabbing his back and pulling him upright again.

"Whoa, you're really not okay. Here, lean on me."

"Who-?" Jack tried to speak again but lost his voice when he was suddenly hoisted into a standing position and nearly fell back again, had the wall not been there to catch him in a spine-cracking collision that had stars popping in front of his eyes.

"Jeez- uh. Damn, what-?" The voice was back again, close to Jack left ear. His right seemed to be pressed against something cold. "Wait here, I'll be right back." Jack heard scurrying footsteps, the closing of a door and then silence. Nothing but the whirr of the overhead air-con and the occasional random air-freshener spritz.

His head must be cracked open. That was the only logical explanation for why it hurt so much.

Who was that anyway? That was Jack's next thought. Who had been his rescuer? Not that he needed rescuing, of course. He wasn't even that drunk.

"I'm no' even tha' drunk…" He mumbled to himself. "Man, my stomach 'urts." Jack noticed his chest was burning too. God, in fact, there didn't seem to be an inch of him that wasn't in some kind of pain.

When was that person going to come back? Jack hoped it would be soon. He felt bad for abandoning his friends. What if they were worrying about him? But to be honest, they were probably all out dancing without him, and forgetting all about him… No! He had to get back out there. They weren't allowed to forget about him. He'd had enough of being forgotten.

Somehow, with some hidden strength, he managed to haul himself up off the ground and stagger across the bathroom, his hand clasped to his forehead to keep the ringing at bay, and he was just about to reach for the handle when the door suddenly swung open and smacked him square in the face. He toppled backwards and crashed into a heap against one of the sinks.

"Oh crap, hey, you okay?" It was that voice again.

"Yup, I'm fan-tastic…" Jack murmured in response. "Where'd you go?"

"I tried to get somebody to help, but no one will." The voice said, flustered. "D'you think you can stand up if you lean on me? We need to get you some fresh air."

"Mm-hmm, reckon I could do that'..."

"Right, come on then. Put your arm around my shoulder." Jack did as the voice instructed and finally got a good grip before he was pulled up for the second time. This one was successful however, and together, Jack and his rescuer made their way slowly to the door.

They made their trip in a mutual silence for the most part, apart from the few times the stranger asked if Jack wanted to stop or checking he was okay, as they weaved their way through the crowds. Jack was grateful for this because he was pretty sure that trying to speak while walking and keeping his eyes open would've been too much for his frazzled brain and he might've passed out again. No one gave them more than a half glance as they left the club and continued down the street.

It was completely pitch black outside. The lampposts lining the streets were all busted. No surprise to Jack, though. This was the dodgiest, 'don't want to be out here alone at night' place in the city.

"Can we stop?" Jack whispered after they'd walked about a block and circled back.

"Sure. Here, sit on this." The guy pulled up a metal chair, that had been leaning against the wall of a cafe and lowered Jack slowly into it. "Take it easy."

"Thanks."

Jack leaned forward, putting his head between his knees. He'd seen people do this in movies when they felt nauseous so he figured he'd try it. It did nothing but make him more dizzy.

"Who did you come here with tonight?"

Jack didn't realise he was being spoken to until the question had been repeated twice and even then, he had to blink hard a couple of times to clear his head and comprehend what he was being asked.

"I was with my friends…" He said slowly.

"How many of you are there? Are they still in the club?"

 _Oh crap, he wanted Jack to count all of them?_ He tried to count his friends on his fingers, but quickly ran out of digits and shook his head. "Loads. They're all still dancing, I think…"

"Right." There was a pause. "Can you tell me your name? I'll ask the bouncer to try and find some of your friends."

"Jack."

"Okay, Jack. I'm just gonna cross the road and talk to the bouncer really quick. I'll be right back." And then Jack was alone again. It was alright. He raised his head and leaned back into the chair, trying to focus his eyes. He watched the blurry outline of a person get further away until it joined the swimming sea of grey which were the buildings opposite.

How the hell had he managed to get himself this messed up in such a short space of time? This wasn't like him at all. Also, who the hell was helping him? Jack hadn't caught even a glimpse of his face yet, and stupidly, hadn't even asked for his name. He made of note to himself to do that as soon as they came back.

If they came back…?

What if they just left him out here? Alone in the dark? He'd never admit it, but Jack absolutely loathed the dark. Because the dark meant sleeping. And sleeping meant dreaming. And Jack's dreams were always the same. Always cold and suffocating, and frightening. Almost like he was drowning.

Jack shivered. He desperately tried to get his drunk head to focus his eyes, looking for anybody, for the person who'd brought him out here, for his friends… But to no avail. He was completely blind to anything other than blurred shapes and a few spots of light that were the neon signs on the outside of the club.

Were his friends looking for him? Had they even noticed he was gone? Surely someone would have… Astrid or Gogo maybe? North and Flynn were meant to be driving home so they wouldn't have gotten themselves too drunk, right?

"Hey, I'm back." A hand suddenly landed on his shoulder and Jack flinched. "Sorry. The bouncers wouldn't help and I didn't want to go in and leave you out here where I couldn't see you."

Jack nodded. That made sense, sort of.

"Do you have your phone on you? You can leave one of your friends a message and I can drive you home. I'm completely sober."

Jack nodded again. He felt weird allowing this total stranger to take so much responsibility and help him, but what they were saying definitely seemed sensible. He dug around in his pocket until he found his phone and held it out. The person held it for a second, as if waiting for Jack's approval for them to use it, and then took it.

"Oh, what's your passcode?"

"Uh, one-nine-three-six." Jack recited, somehow digging that memory out of his alcohol drenched brain.

"Okay. Who do you want me to message?"

Jack hated giving this much freedom to this guy. Total admittance to his phone, contacts, basically his whole life, and it was all inside that little rectangle of metal and glass.

But who to message? Jack thought about it, as best as he could. His first thought was Astrid. But she was drunk and Jack knew for a fact her hangovers lasted at least two days, so she was ruled out. Texting one of the guys seemed more logical to Jack. Tuff? No, he wouldn't take it seriously. In the end, he decided on Aster, as even though he could be a real ass at times, Jack knew he'd understand the situation and help as best as he could as soon as he could.

"Um, text Aster." Jack said, and then quickly corrected himself. "His contact name is Bunny." There was a pause. "Don't ask…"

"Wasn't gonna." The guy laughed and soon Jack could hear the sound of keys tapping and then the click of the message being sent. "I told him you'd been taken home by a friend and not to worry, but to come and check on you as soon as he leaves the club. That okay?"

"Mmm-hmm." Jack murmured.

"Okay. Let's get to my car. It's a bit of a walk. A few blocks away. D'you think you can manage that?"

"Yeah, but-" Jack raised his head and squinted hard at the person, "Who are you?"

"Oh crap, yeah I forgot. I never introduced myself. I'm Hiccup."

After a few seconds, his face finally came into clear focus. Tanned skin, freckles, a grey beanie covering a thick head of reddish brown curls, and his face was set in an anxious expression that didn't suit him.

Jack gasped, as he was staring at the same boy he'd found himself staring at mere hours ago in the restaurant.

Fate was clearly having fun today...

...

I'm really not good at writing drunk!characters... sorry. But anyways, the boys finally meet! Yass the moment we've all been waiting for, and then I go and leave you all on a horrible cliffhanger. I'm sorry! How did you like the whole switching POV's? Should I keep doing that throughout or was it annoying for you? Let me know in a review and I'll be sure to take it into account.

Shoutouts

A Frozen Shadow: That part was really funny to write. Glad you enjoyed it x Thanks for the review!

LovelyOnyx: First off, I like your username! Second, he's alright. Just a little drunk and maybe a bit of something else as well? *wink wink* you'll have to wait to find out more though

I didn't get many reviews this time, which was a shame since reviews are LITERALLY MY ONLY MOTIVATION TO WRITE MORE. So if you want to read more, maybe consider leaving me one? Even if it's just a quick little 'more pls'

Anyways, hope you enjoyed xx


	6. Bad Dream

**Alrighty, hello again. I feel like I've left a reasonable time gap between updates this time and I've tried my best to make this chapte a little longer than usual, since you've had to wait for a while and I've suddenly gotten a lot of followers and favourites all at once on this story (thanks so much for those btw you know who you are xx). Okay, without further ado, enjoy x**

...

"Hiccup…?" Jack practised the name, letting it roll off his tongue, which now felt horribly heavy in his foul tasting mouth. "Hic-cup… hmm."

"Yeah, that's right. And you're Jack." Hiccup was talking again. Jack couldn't believe it was the same boy from the restaurant, and that he was here, helping him when no one else was. "Hey? You still there? Jack, can you stand up for me? We need to get you to my car so I can take you home."

Jack felt himself being hauled up out of the metal chair and together they began to walk slowly along the pavement. Jack couldn't do anything but stare down at the tarmac. Every step made his stomach lurch and made him feel like he was going to throw up.

"Wh- where's y- car-?" Jack panted.

"My car? It's parked out the back of Yoji. It's a restaurant where I work just up the road. It's not too far."

"Yeah, I know y- work there…" Jack mumbled before he could stop himself.

"You know I work at Yoji? How'd you know that?" Hiccup's voice sounded unconvinced, like he was aware of how out-of-it Jack was and was just talking to keep him occupied.

"-saw you earlier." Jack slurred. God, he was so drunk. He felt so so sick.

"Mmm-hmm okay. We're nearly at the car. Just hold on a bit longer, Jack."

Jack liked the way Hiccup said his name. It sounded right somehow. But then again, just hearing his name at all felt right. He thought he'd forget his own name if Hiccup didn't keep saying it.

"Hey hey, don't fall asleep on me Jack."

"I didn't, did I-?"

"Yeah, you did, and you're kinda heavy… You've gotta stay awake. You can sleep when you get home, okay?"

"Okay…"

"Good, just a little further. Hey look, you can see my car from here." Jack acknowledged that Hiccup was pointing somewhere, but couldn't find the energy to raise his head to look. "Almost there, almost there." Hiccup kept repeating this sentence over and over until they finally reached a road they needed to cross and he stopped. "Alright Jack, we're about to cross a road, so hold on to me and don't stop walking."

"Right. Don't s-stop walking…" Jack repeated, obediently grabbing onto the hand that Hiccup was holding out for him.

"You got it. Look, there's my car right there. Step up here, don't trip on the kerb. That's it. Okay let me just grab my keys…"

"Keys-?"

"Yeah Jack, keys are kind of a necessity when driving a car…" Hiccup chuckled, clearly quite amused by Jack's intoxicated comments.

"So w-where's y- car?" Jack slurred after a few more minutes of walking.

"Jack, you're in the car… I'm just buckling your seat belt." Hiccup replied, sounding exasperated and also anxious.

"Oh…" Jack didn't even notice he was sat in the passenger side of Hiccup's pretty cramped, but surprisingly warm car.

"Alright. You comfortable there? I'm gonna need you to tell me your address. Do you have it written down anywhere in your phone? Or could you just tell me it? Hey, Jack-?"

Jack felt a firm hand grasp his shoulder. His eyes had fallen shut of their own accord. It was so warm and cosy in the car and Jack felt safe for the first time that night. He just wanted to sleep. But what was it Hiccup had said? ' _You can sleep when you get home, okay?'_

Okay… Jack didn't think he'd be able to wait that long though. His body was already beginning to shut down. At this point, he didn't think he'd be able to move any of his limbs if he wanted to. Everything went quiet for a moment as Hiccup closed the passenger door and went around to the driver side before getting in himself.

"Jack, can I look at your phone again? I need an address. Jack? Oh crap. Can you hear me, Jack-?!"

Jack was drifting in and out of consciousness. He desperately wanted to listen, to tell Hiccup where to go, to get home, but his drunk brain had other plans. His body needed sleep. And it needed it now.

"Jack-!"

The warm car seat vibrating as the car engine rumbled to life was the last thing Jack's groggy mind registered before he passed out completely

…

 _Jack opened his eyes just as something bright blue flashed past his face. He jumped and took a step back, watching as the object sailed past and landed on the ground._

 _It was a frisbee._

 _Who'd thrown it? Jack glanced around. He was in a park. A huge, beautiful park of lush green grass and the occasional twisting path that snaked through past engraved benches and towering oak trees. There was a pond behind him. Water lilies and duckweed floated on the surface while the bright sun created shimmering patterns across the rippling waves, which were being created by a cool breeze._

 _His friends were all there too. North, Aster, Tooth and Sandy were sitting on a bench talking. Honey, Elsa, Ruffnut and Rapunzel were all sprawled across a picnic blanket, laughing and chattering. Gogo, Astrid, Tuff, Merida and Kristoff were stood spread out across the field, throwing and catching the frisbee. Flynn and Anna arrived at the picnic blanket seconds later carrying a coolbox of drinks between them._

 _Jack figured he must've just zoned out for a second and turned his attention back to the frisbee, which was currently crossing the gap between Gogo and Merida at lightning speed. Merida caught it gracefully and went to toss it to Kristoff. Kristoff passed it to Astrid, and then it was Jack's turn to catch it. He readied himself for it as the disc flew from Astrid's hand at full speed. It was heading slightly too far to the left so Jack shifted to catch it. He dived for it, and missed._

 _The frisbee zoomed on by, only to be caught effortlessly by Tuff, who cheered himself before throwing it back to Gogo._

 _Crap, he couldn't believe he'd missed it like that. His hand had been in exactly the right place to intercept. Maybe the sun had gotten in his eyes…_

 _Another round went by and suddenly it was Jack's turn again. And again, he missed._

 _What the heck-?_

" _Astrid, maybe try aiming for me next time?" Jack shouted jokingly to her. She didn't reply, only continued to watch the frisbee as it made it's way around the circle again._

 _The next time the disc sailed straight past Jack, he decided to give up. Obviously, today wasn't a frisbee day for him. Instead, he went and sat on the picnic blanket with the girls and Flynn. They were gossiping about nothing in particular, so Jack laid back on the blanket and closed his eyes, enjoying the breeze and smell of the freshly cut grass and flowers._

 _This was great. Being in a peaceful place with his favourite people just chilling and having fun. This was what Jack had been hoping could've been his life years ago. But finding friends had been a lot harder back then. Finding enough time to hang out with any friends, if he were to have any, would've been even harder._

" _Okay guys c'mon. Stop being lazy!" Jack heard a shout and looked up to see Gogo waving her arms frantically at him and the rest of the picnic blanket party. "Ultimate frisbee tournament is starting now and you're all joining in!"_

 _The girls all groaned and began moaning about their nails breaking and their hair getting messed up, but stood up and went to join in nonetheless. Jack followed and took his place in the circle in between Flynn and Tuff. North, Aster, Tooth and Sandy had also strolled over to play._

 _Jack was pretty sure ultimate frisbee was a little more elaborately set up than a circle of people just chucking the disc randomly between them but he participated anyway, just for the fun of it all._

" _Right. Rules are, you drop it, you're out!" Gogo grinned, as many of the other girls sighed. Jack was up for it though. Despite not catching any in his short attempt a few minutes ago, he was sure he'd be able to catch at least one this time._

" _Flynn, think fast!" Gogo suddenly yelled and chucked the frisbee at him. Flynn nearly fell over in his mad jump to catch it, but he succeeded and held it for a few seconds before shouting._

" _Rapunzel!" And he threw it to her._

 _It seemed that this time, they weren't going to pass it around in a circle like they had been doing before, but instead simply pass to anyone they wanted at any time. Jack had to be ready. He spent the next few minutes watching intently as the disc flew around the group at ridiculous speeds. No one had failed to catch it yet. But then, Jack hadn't had it passed to him yet so that was subject to change…_

 _A few more minutes passed and Jack began to get a bit confused as to why he hadn't been passed to yet._

" _Hey, I'm here too guys!" He called, waving his arms about trying to gain any kind of attention he could. Nobody noticed him. Not even Tuff, who was standing two feet away from him and hopping madly about, following the direction of the frisbee. "Tuff, pass it to me next?" Jack tried again. Tuff didn't say anything, or even acknowledge that Jack had spoken to him._

 _What was going on? Why were his friends ignoring him?_

" _Guys!" He shouted, walking out into the middle of the circle, arms raised, "This isn't funny anymore. What are you doing?"_

 _Still, nobody said anything or seemed to notice him standing there._

" _What the hell? C'mon guys, stop it. It's getting weird now." Jack tried to hide the panic in his voice as he strode over to Ruff and stopped inches from her face, staring at her. He knew she'd eventually give in and start giggling if he just stood there long enough._

 _But her face never even faltered. Her eyes just continued to dart about as she watched the frisbee._

" _Ruff? Hello?"_

" _Pass it here, Elsa!" She suddenly yelled right in Jack's face. The next thing he knew, he'd swivelled around just in time to see the frisbee flying towards his face. He didn't even have time to duck before it was centimetres from his nose._

 _Jack winced, preparing for the impact._

 _But it never came. The disc soared right through his head and out the other side as if Jack wasn't even there._

" _W-what the fuck-?!" He clutched his head and spun around to see Ruff throw the frisbee again. This time, it hurtled through Jack's stomach, flying out his back before being intercepted by Honey._

" _G-guys...?" Jack stared around at all of them in horror. "Can you not see me?"_

 _Again, Jack was greeted by no response. Slowly, he approached Astrid and waved his hand in front of her face. When she didn't react, he reached out and touched her arm. His fingers went right through her skin, like he were a ghost phasing through it._

" _Astrid-?" He stammered, panic really beginning to set in now. She stepped forward to catch the disc and in doing so, walked through Jack altogether. The weirdest sensation ran through his entire body and he shuddered, pacing backwards in terror._

" _No no no, this isn't real." He chanted over and over, holding his head in his hands as he continued to walk backwards, away from the group. He'd forgotten all about the pond behind him._

 _His foot tilted on the edge dangerously, before the rest of his bodyweight caused him to topple over backwards into the freezing water. The pond was way deeper than Jack had expected it to be, and when he didn't immediately hit the bottom, he began thrashing about, trying to resurface, but found only a solid wall above him. He opened his eyes, the water stinging them. A thick layer of ice had formed across the pond surface, completely trapping Jack under._

 _He smashed his hands against the ice, but to no avail. The cold was making his brain seize up and lack of oxygen was making him dizzy. After what seemed like an eternity banging on the ice and holding his breath, Jack gave up. He opened his mouth, letting out a thick stream of bubbles and allowing his heavy body to sink down, down, down._

 _Into a dark, cold, lonely world of pitch black._

…

Jack's eyes shot open, as did his mouth as he gasped for air. He sat bolt upright and after several seconds of desperately panting for breath, he began coughing and spluttering.

"It's okay. You're okay, Jack."

A warm feeling suddenly spread across his back and he relaxed into it before being laid in a horizontal position once again.

"You're safe, Jack. Go back to sleep now…"

Jack's eyes fluttered closed again and within seconds, he'd dozed off again.

...

 **I'm not sure how I felt about this one... I came up with the whole idea of Jack's nightmare on the spot because I kind of wanted to fill out this chapter a little more and I think it went okay? Let me know what you thought of it in a review.**

 **Any of you who follow my other story, Would You Rather, will be aware of my current crisis in terms of failed A levels and having to find a new college and I don't really want to explain it all again on this story and bore you all to tears, but just in case you don't know, my predicament might (emphasis on** ** _might_** **) cause some weird update schedules (not that they're not weird already). But yeah, pls forgive me if the next chapter doesn't go up for a while, but my entire future is kinda depending on the choices I make in the next two weeks.**

 **Shoutouts:**

 **A Frozen Shadow: I both love and loathe writing drunk!Jack, because it's hard to write but also fun to make up his dumb comments and funny moments. There were a few of those in this chapter I hope you enjoyed x**

 **Snowflakesandangels: Okay, first, THANKS YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR BEAUTIFUL REVIEW ON MY OTHER STORY. Your words made my day and I love reviews from you because you're so inspirational and supportive, so thank you so so so much for doing that for me. You have no idea how lovely it was for me to wake up after that horrible day and see all the kind comments I'd received overnight. Thanks xx Also, I took in your advice about POV's and decided to not do any more of those in the future. Well, unless I think it's absolutely necessary... Thanks for your review**

 **Two of the broken masks: Ah, but there is the question... Where is Jack now? His own house or Hiccup's? What do you think?**

 **pikianoa: Yes I know, I'd been putting it off for soooooo long, hadn't I? But I promise a lot of cute awkward fluffy moments in the next chapter x**

 **JakeTheStoryTeller: Jeez, you're seriously way too kind... I envy you for your impeccable update schedules and creativity. Mine isn't a million times better than yours anyways. I LOOOVE your writing! Thanks for the review xx**

 **NekoRyuuKo: Wow, reviews in all caps always give me a massive smile, no matter what they say. Just because I imagine you screaming it at you computer screen while you're writing it. Here ya go. Hope you liked this chapter and thanks for taking the time to review xx**

 **OKAY THANKS FOR READING IF YOU'VE MADE IT THIS FAR. I honestly can't even begin to tell you all how much it means to me that you appreciate my work. I've been having a really tough time with everything throughout the summer and recently, fanfiction seems to be the only rewarding thing I can do so getting support and love from here makes my day. Thanks you so much everyone and I love you all xx**

 **Drop a quick review if you liked it? xx**


	7. 2902 Berk Apartments

**Sorry for the dreadful wait guys, but here's a chapter to satisfy you all (and clear my guilty conscience). I really wasn't very motivated to write this one, but I also really didn't want to make you wait any longer so here it is. Enjoy x**

...

Hiccup

The sound of a metal teaspoon clinking against Hiccup's mug was all he could hear as he absentmindedly stirred his coffee, never taking his eyes off the bedroom door.

It was now 10:37 in the morning and Hiccup hadn't heard a peep from his unconscious guest for over five hours. Not since he'd jerked awake at about 4am completely shell-shocked from a bad dream.

Jack had passed out completely in Hiccup's car before he could give him any kind of directions or indications as to where he lived. Hiccup had checked Jack's phone, but found it pretty useless since almost every app was password protected. So, exhausting all the options his brain could conjure up at that ridiculous hour, he'd brought Jack back to his own house and let him rest in his bed.

Wow, that definitely sounded weird now that he phrased that in a sentence. It wasn't creepy, was it? No, of course not. What else could he have done anyway? Jack needed to rest, and he couldn't have stayed in the car, or gone back to that horrid club, where it was loud and bright and no one was willing to help him.

So now, Hiccup was perched on the edge of his sofa, drinking from his third cup of coffee that night (or would that be morning?) and waiting for something to happen.

Hiccup hadn't slept all night. He was too worried about Jack.

He was beginning to wonder if he should go in there and wake him up, but decided not to. Last time he'd checked, Jack had looked to be peacefully resting.

Hiccup's eyes drifted across to his phone. It was laying on the table next to Jack's, which Hiccup had removed from his trouser pocket before putting him to bed. He thought it'd be better if he kept the phone close to him in case one of his friends tried to contact him. But so far, neither of the phones had made any sort of noise or vibration. This was both worrying and strange.

Eventually, Hiccup couldn't handle just sitting there waiting and listening, so, putting down his coffee next to the phones, he rose and crossed over to the bedroom door, which he'd left slightly ajar.

"Jack?" He called out, before poking his head around the door and peering in. Jack was bundled up tightly in the green duvet like a caterpillar and his shocking white hair stuck out at odd angles, fanning out across the pillow in thick tufts. He was breathing deeply and with each inhale, he snorted a little. It was sort of like a snore, but not quite… Somehow, more elegant.

Well, Hiccup certainly hadn't left him in this cocoon-like state, which could only mean that at some point Jack had stirred and maneuvered his way into this more 'comfortable' position himself.

That was promising at least…

Hiccup stood in the doorway, torn between leaving him to snooze, and attempting to wake him up, when the ringing of a phone suddenly sounded from behind him. That definitely wasn't his ringtone though…

He gasped and dashed out of the bedroom towards the buzzing phone sliding its way around the coffee table. Jack's phone was ringing.

Hiccup grabbed it and looked at the caller ID. There was a photo of Jack (looking much more sober and capable of standing on his own two feet) with his arm slung around another man who looked slightly older with shoulder length grey, spiky hair. The contact name read 'Bunny'. Ah, this was the guy Jack had asked him to text last night.

Hopefully, he'd got the message and was calling to check up on Jack. Hiccup answered the call, realising he'd left it ringing for a worryingly long time.

"Hel-"

"Jack! Where the heck are ya, mate?" Hiccup was suddenly interrupted by an extremely loud, strong Australian voice shouting down the line. "Wait, you're not Jack. Who the heck's this?"

"Uh hello, Aster is it?" Hiccup tensed as he said the name, hoping it didn't sound too incredibly creepy that he knew this guys name. "My name is Hiccup. Your friend Jack's here with me. I found him in the bathroom of Vision early this morning and he was in a really bad state so I tried to take him home but he passed out before I could ask him where he lived." Hiccup, paused, hoping 'Bunny' would know where this story was going. When there was no reply, he continued. "So I uh, brought him to my place and let him rest here." He paused again. "I really wasn't sure what else to do."

"S'Jack alright though?" The voice asked, deep concern clearly coming through over the phone.

"Yeah, he's okay. He's probably got one hell of a hangover though. He's still asleep."

"Right." There was an awkward pause. "I- uh, I'm really not sober enough yet to come pick him up from wherever you are. W-where are you again?"

"Oh uh, it's two-nine-zero-two Berk apartments. It's a block of flats just opposite the pier." Hiccup took a second to think before suggesting, "I could always bring him to you. I mean, you do live with him, right? Or at least, know where he lives?"

"Yeah yeah, we live together." He stopped quickly. "But not in _that_ way! Y'know, there's like seven of us in this flat. It's not like-"

"I get it, I get it. Are you at your flat now?"

"Yeah. Yer place is actually literally right around the corner from us. I'll come meet you at yers in about ten minutes, 'kay?"

"Oh right, yeah, okay. See you then-" The sound of the phone being hung up on the other end interrupted Hiccup mid-sentence.

Okay, shit. Hiccup now had approximately nine and a half minutes to wake up Jack and then try to figure out a way to get him down the five flights of stairs to the front door. It'd been hard enough getting him up them last night. In the end, Hiccup had had to ask one of his neighbours, Wasabi, a pretty strong guy from the ground floor, to help carry Jack up to his flat.

Why this eight storey building didn't have an elevator, he'd never know.

Wasabi had been really helpful, considering all this happened at about three in the morning and he was known to be a bit of a control freak about everything, including his sleep schedule.

Hiccup had, however, failed to mention that Jack was a complete stranger, and instead decided to tell Wasabi that he was his cousin who'd gotten a little tipsy at a family reunion. That had seemed to satisfy him though, so no panicked nine-nine-nine calls had been made that night, thank goodness.

Hiccup slowly stepped back into the bedroom where Jack was bundled up in his burrito of blankets. He approached the bed and gently shook the mound, in a place he assumed was Jack's shoulder.

"Hey, Jack?"

Jack groaned slightly before pulling the duvet up and over his head.

"Jack, you need to wake up now. Your friend is coming to take you home." Hiccup tried to make his voice gentle and calming.

The mound of green fabric moaned louder, and Hiccup sighed, exasperated. "Look Jack, you can't stay hungover for the whole day. You've gotta get up." He reached out to pull the duvet off of him, but stopped himself short of doing so. Jack was probably still completely unaware of where he was or much of what had happened the night before. He'd most likely be incredibly confused if he were to be woken up in an unknown place by a random guy.

Hiccup was still debating what to do when the sound of the door buzzer screamed its presence throughout the flat.

He quickly went over to the intercom, built into the wall next to the front door and pressed the mic button. "Hello?"

"It's Aster. Did I get the right one this time?" The voice sounded annoyed. _This time-?_ Had he just been pressing random doorbells at the main ground floor doors hoping to get the right one. There were well over twenty different apartments in this building…

"Yeah, it's Hiccup here. I'll just buzz you in. The apartment is two-nine-zero-two, okay?"

"Yeah I know, I know. I'll be up in a sec, thanks."

Hiccup pressed another button underneath the mic button and a beep signalled that he'd successfully unlocked the main front doors. He then went and stood with his face pressed against the peep-hole in the door, waiting for Aster.

Jack's snores could be heard again, louder this time.

About two minutes later, a tall, muscled man with the same spiky hair as in the contact photo, appeared on the corridor floor and Hiccup opened the door a crack.

"Aster?"

Hearing his name, the man turned and walked towards the door. He was much taller up close, at least a foot and a half taller than Hiccup, and much wider too.

"Where's Jack?" He said immediately, pressing a hand to the door frame. He had a sharp face, with bright green eyes and a strong jaw. He was wearing black jeans and a grey t-shirt. His bulky arms were covered in thick tribal tattoos and his hands were wrapped in a pair of black fingerless gloves.

Hiccup stepped back, and opened the door a little more. "He's in bed, asleep. I tried to wake him up, but he's being a bit stubborn." When Aster's face softened to a look of worry, Hiccup fully opened the door and got out of the way to let him in.

"What time did you find 'im last night?" He asked, as he entered Hiccup's flat.

"Um, must've been about half one… I tried to find someone to help, maybe you or one of his other friends you were there with, but I couldn't find anyone. So then I took him outside for some fresh air, but he really wasn't well so I tried to take him back to his, but he passed out before he could tell me where to go." Hiccup paused, realising he was telling this story for the second time. "And so I brought him here."

Aster raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't know what else to do so I- I mean, he wasn't- oh jeez…" Hiccup looked at the floor. Bringing Jack back to his apartment had been a dumb idea. He realised that now. He could've gone back in and asked the DJ to make an announcement or something to find his friends or just straight up taken him to the hospital, but he didn't, and now this man, who looked like he could punch him into next week, was staring at him like he'd committed a crime.

"Wow…" Aster said after an awkward few seconds. "You did all that for Jack, even though you didn't know 'im? Mate, that's amazing. The world needs more people like you." Suddenly he pulled Hiccup into a tight hug, and Hiccup, too stunned to move, tensed up, completely bewildered. Then Aster pulled away and nodded his head towards the bedroom. "I take it that's his snoring I can hear?"

Hiccup nodded as he closed the front door and led Aster to the bedroom.

Jack

Jack woke up slowly, feeling more comfortable than he ever thought he'd been in his life. He was wrapped up in something warm and soft, and everything was so calm and quiet..

For a moment.

And then Jack's poisoned body caught up with his blissful mind and a dull pain flooded through every inch of him.

His head felt like it'd been stuffed with cotton wool and his eyes, despite being closed, were aching like they were being squeezed. And his stomach was churning and pulsing horribly, making him want to throw up with each sick thump.

He tried to move, to get more comfortable, but found all he could do was roll onto his side and curl up, which alleviated the pain a tiny bit.

Just as Jack was beginning to drift off again, a sound penetrated the shouting silence around him.

"Jack?"

It was a voice Jack didn't recognise instantly, which confused him, but having a head full of cotton wool made it hard to come up with an action plan for what to do about the mystery voice. So he decided to just ignore it and stay still. Another noise like a phone ringing reached his ears quickly after that, but it was faint and he ignored that too. That same voice talking and another voice, incredibly quiet, but very familiar…

Sleep overcame him again before he could process anything else.

…

"Hey, Jack?"

This time, the voice was really close and something was shaking him, sending cool breezes into his fort of warmth. Jack groaned in annoyance and pulled his protective shield of fluffiness over his head.

"Jack, you need to wake up now. Your friend is coming to take you home."

Jack wanted to shout at whoever was talking, to tell them to be quiet and let him sleep, but only a weird kind of mumbled moan escaped his lips. The voice carried on talking anyway, but Jack didn't listen to it and instead focussed on falling back to sleep.

However, not even two minutes into his attempt, he suddenly heard something. A voice that he really didn't want to hear right now, when he was this ridiculously hungover.

Aster.

"I take it that's his snoring I can hear?"

No no no no no… Jack didn't want to see Aster right now. He always made fun of him when he was drunk, or trying to sleep off a hangover, like now. Just because his metabolism meant he could drink a pint and burn it off within an hour…

"Jack?"

 _No, go away…_

"Jack, mate? Can ye' hear me?"

 _God, I wish I couldn't…_

"Has 'e responded to ye' at all yet this morning?" Now Aster seemed to be talking to someone else. "Right…"

Jack's eyelids suddenly turned a warm shade of red as his shield was pulled away.

"Jesus, Jack." He heard Aster gasp. "I'm sorry. I shouldn'ta let you get so drunk and then leave you alone. I'm s'posed to be looking out for all o' you…"

Jack opened his eyes with difficulty and blinked hard a few times before he could sort out the blurry shapes before him. Half his vision was taken up by Aster's worried, and relieved face, and the other half…

"W-where am I-?" He whispered. Wow, talking hurt…

"Yer at Hiccup's place. He helped you last night when you were in serious trouble." Aster explained, and Jack felt hands pulling on his shoulders, helping him to sit up.

 _Like that was going to happen…_

"Hic-cup?" Jack said the name. Why did that sound so familiar? A face suddenly appeared next to Aster's and Jack's stomach dropped to the floor, and his cheeks burned red.

"You okay, Jack?"

...

 **Okay, I'm not gonna lie. This chapter sucked... But I want to include Aster as a character a little more because jesus, i've been reading a hell of a lot of JackRabbit recently and I'm in the mindset for some bromance... Don't worry tho. HiJack is still the main priority...**

 **Right, this chapter was pretty terrible so here's a funny anecdote from my life that'll entertain you in cas this chapter didn't. I went on holiday last weekend to a theme park and at this particular theme park, there was evening entertainment on every night and because I was allowed to bring a friend with me on this holiday, we spent most evenings in the entertainment hub rather than at the campsite, which was pretty boring. Now, every night we were there, we played bingo (sad, I know...) and then stayed for the cabaret performance, which lasted until about 10pm. STORY TANGENT. Earlier on in the day on the second to last day of our holiday, my friend and I had been walking to the ride section at the top end of the park when a guy dressed up as Jack Sparrow tried to get us to take part in a stage show going on on the main outdoor stage. We had to refuse the offer because we wanted to get onto the rollercoaster as soon as we could because the queue was super long. BACK TO THE MAIN STORY. So on the night of the second to last day of the holiday, we played bingo as usual, and then stayed for the cabaret. That night, it was a magician. And who was the magician? Only the same guy who'd been Jack Sparrow earlier! And this was one of those magic shows where he needed a volunteer for literally every trick. So he looked out into the audience and spotted my friend and I (bear in mind, we completely rejected him that day) and literally picked on us for the entirety of the show. To make a long story short, he 'smashed' my phone with a hammer and then made it appear fixed inside a sealed pringles tube :O. And then for my friend, he did that trick where you pick a random card out of the deck and somehow, it disappears and then appears inside a freaking apple. (I'll never understand how that happens...)**

 **Okay, there ya go. I would go into more detail but if I do, this anecdote will be longer than the actual chapter... lol**

 **Shoutouts:**

 **Two of the broken masks: You guessed right! Hiccup's place it is... This setting is going to be a pretty important place in the upcoming chapters, trust me... And don't worry about me. I'm going at my own pace and I appreciate reviews, even if they're demanding. It only motivates me more.**

 **mysterious critic: It's going places, don't you worry. It's just taking a bit of a weird detour on it's way there...**

 **A Frozen Shadow: Here ya go another chapter for you. I'm pleased you're following this stroy and are enjoying it. I liked writing the dream scene, and linking it to the movie, y'know, when Jack falls in the lake *sobs***

 **pikianoa: I loved writing that scene. Writing drunk characters is so much fun!**

 **Snowflakesandangels: For god's sake, I swear every time I go to write out your username I accidentally type angles instead of angels... Oh there's gonna be a lot of cute Hiccup and Jack moments coming up so stay tuned! And yep, that dream brought hella feels to me when I was writing it too. So sorry...**


	8. Warren Terrace

**I'm not even gonna go into detail about why this is so late because I don't have any valid excuse, but here you go because the guilt has been destroying my soul and a final review I got the other day was the straw that broke my poor old camel back... This one's a little longer than I usually do so pls enjoy x**

...

"You okay, Jack?"

Jack didn't reply straight away. He didn't reply for about a full minute. He was too busy staring at Hiccup.

Hiccup… What an unusual name. But then he remembered Bunny was there too and immediately dropped the idea that Hiccup was a strange name. Hell, Jack Frost was weird enough, wasn't it?

"Jack, hello?" There was Aster again. He should probably reply…

"Wha-?" He croaked out, eyes still adjusting to the light, coming in and out of focus like a camera lens.

"I think I should probably take 'im home." Jack heard Aster saying, "Get 'im in his own bed, y'know. He's still out of it and it'd be better for 'im to wake up somewhere he's familiar with."

"Yeah, you're right." There was that other voice again. "Want me to drive you back? My car's just out front."

"Nah mate, thanks for the offer, but it's literally about a two minute walk to our place. Warren Terrace, y'know it?"

Jack zoned out again at this point, but kept his eyes open and directed at the brunet in front of him. He was talking to Aster. The exact words weren't processing but his voice itself sounded nice. Soothing even.

As his eyes started to slide into clearer focus permanently, Jack didn't stop looking at Hiccup. He liked the shirt he was wearing. It was green plaid and he had a black t-shirt on underneath it. A pretty good colour combo, but then again, how could Jack trust his own intoxicated eyes at this point? Without his headphones and beanie on, Hiccup had floppy chestnut hair that just brushed his shoulders and Jack noticed, with a small smile, that there was a tiny plait woven into one side of his head. Cute...

Jack wondered what Hiccup had seen or heard him do last night? Had he made an absolute idiot out of himself in front of the one guy he'd taken notice of? Oh man, had he said anything about it?

"C'mon then Frostbite, let's get you 'ome." And Jack suddenly couldn't see Hiccup anymore because he was being pulled gently out of his laying position and onto his hardly stable feet.

"No, don't wanna walk…" Jack moaned, grappling against Aster's hold on him, but he quickly stopped when he felt another, slightly smaller pair of hands steadying him from the back.

"You sure you don't want me to drive?" He asked Aster.

"Yeah, Jack's jus' being lazy. He can walk fine. If not I'll just give 'im a piggyback or something…"

Jack scowled at that. No way was he letting Aster give him a piggyback, or even carry him at all. He couldn't even begin to imagine how embarrassing that would be.

"Wanna walk…" Jack sighed, admitting defeat.

"At least let me help you get him down the stairs then." Hiccup suggested, moving around the bed to pull one of my limp arms over his shoulders. "The lift is out of order. Well, it's been out of order since I moved in, so I guess it's dead, but whatever. It's a lot of stairs."

"Yeah I know, I had to walk up 'em to get here, didn't I?" Aster chuckled, hooking Jack's other arm onto his shoulders and together, the three of them began to walk, slowly, through Hiccup's apartment, across the landing and down the first few flights of stairs.

Jack really didn't feel great. He had to ask them to slow down a few times because he was scared he was going to throw up, but eventually they made it to the bottom floor and Hiccup unlatched himself from Jack.

"You guys sure you'll be okay from here?"

"Yeah yeah, thanks so much for all your help up to this point though, mate. Honestly, I dunno what I'da done if you hadn't picked up Jack's phone when I called…"

"I'm just glad to know he's got friends who can look after him at home." Hiccup's voice sounded distant now, as if he was already leaving. "Maybe our paths'll cross again someday." Then, right before Hiccup left, Jack felt something brush against his side, felt something briefly touch his trouser pocket. "Bye then. Get some good rest, Jack."

And just like that, he was disappearing back up the stairs.

Jack felt like screaming, but there was no way he could've with his still thumping headache and dry throat. That was his one chance to talk to him and he blew it by being completely hungover and bratty. How long had he been at Hiccup's place? He couldn't remember anything about last night before waking up just then to Aster and Hiccup staring at him. God, had their faces been a horrible thing to come back to. All worried and terrified at the same time…

"Jack, y'alright?" Aster shook him out of his musings as the pair continued to limp away from Berk Apartments, heading across the road and a few blocks down to Warren Terrace.

Jack nodded. Of course he wasn't alright. He'd completely fucked up the only chance he was ever going to get with the first guy he'd fallen for on sight. He'd taken it too slow with the few other boys he'd liked. He'd become friends with them first, got to know them better, and then, once he felt their friendship was at the right place, had begun to feel more for them. He often wished he had more than a platonic relationship with many of his past crushes, but could never bring himself to turn them into anything more.

So that's all they'd ever been. Unfulfilled romances. Unrequited fantasies to keep Jack awake at night wishing he'd done something when he'd had the chance.

But he never did.

And now it seemed that Hiccup would become nothing more than another name on that list of regrets Jack had to remember every time he tried to relax.

But no… Hiccup, he was different.

All the other crushes Jack had had, had developed over time as he got to know the real person underneath their appearance, but Hiccup… No, Jack had fallen head over heels for Hiccup just from one glance at him.

Surely that meant something was different this time?

Maybe love at first sight does exist…

"Ugh…" Jack groaned at the sappy thought, and also at the pounding in his head. Aster slowed their walking speed a little, thinking Jack was uncomfortable.

"C'mon snowflake, nearly home. How's a hot bath and then bed sound?" Aster meant it to sound caring, but he stifled a chuckle at the end, "That came out weird… You know what I mean though."

Jack nodded again. Honestly, in any other circumstance, Aster's complete failure to string a normal sentence would normally have made him laugh, but right now, he just felt too confused and annoyed to do anything but focus on not bursting into tears.

That's right. The unbreakable Jack Frost was trying desperately not to cry.

"Jack?"

It wasn't like Jack to be this quiet and submissive, and Aster was definitely noticing that something was wrong.

"We there yet…?" Jack mumbled, trying to break his uncharacteristic silence

"Nearly. It's lucky Hiccup lives so close. I couldn't've come to get you in the car if you were miles away. I'm still a tad gone to be behind the wheel, y'know?"

"Where's... others?"

"They're all back at the flat. Pretty sure Flynn and Tuff are still working off major hangovers, but everyone else's okay. Worried 'bout you though…"

"Oh." Was all Jack could think to say in response. "The girls?"

"Uh, Rapunzel called this morning actually, asking if you were alright, and I told her we didn't know where you'd gone. Oh crikey, I should probably ring her and let her know we gotcha now. Hang on a sec."

Jack felt himself being jostled slightly as Aster reached for his phone and dialled the number.

"Hey, Punz? Yeah. Yeah yeah, calm down love, I've got 'im right here. Some nice kid from the club took 'im home and looked after 'im. We're headed back to the Warren now. Where- oh, you're there? Okay, well we're just coming round the corner so see you in a bit- Huh, she hung up…"

"The girls are at the Warren?" Jack asked.

"Seems like it."

"Ugh…"

"They're probably all just worried about you, Jack. You scared all of us when we couldn't find you. 'Specially Astrid. She seemed to think it was 'er fault."

Jack remembered all those shots he'd taken with Astrid last night, and half-smiled. Worry definitely wasn't an emotion usually associated with the cool and collected Astrid Hofferson, after all…

"We there yet?" Jack asked again, and this time, his question was answered by a different voice that Aster's.

"Jack! Oh thank god you're alright! Wait, are you alright?"

And suddenly Jack was having the life squeezed out of him by the very person he'd just been smiling thinking about. Astrid was famous for never getting hungover after a night out. She kind of usually became the mum of the group the morning after a party, making sure we were all up in time for work or classes and all that. I didn't even think about how stressed she must've been about me…

"I'm good, sorry for getting lost." Jack murmured into Astrid's neck as she continued to hug him.

"Idiot." Was Astrid crying-?

"Astrid-?"

"Come on you knucklehead, you need to sleep this off." Astrid detached herself from Jack quickly and stomped his through the door to the Warren.

Luckily, their flat in this building was only on the first floor, and the lift actually worked, so it wasn't too much of a struggle for Astrid and Aster to get Jack up to his room. Once Jack was sitting on the side of his bed, in the bedroom he shared with Tuff, Astrid stood awkwardly in the doorway for a moment and then left. Jack couldn't hold back the pang of guilt that washed over him as soon as she'd left. How much had he worried her? He could've been drugged, kidnapped, or worse…?

Aster was still in the room when Jack finally took his eyes away from the door.

"Tuff's asleep on the sofa, so you got the room to yerself." He chuckled. "Uh, d'you wanna get changed or…?"

God, this was awkward.

"I'll get changed." Jack replied flatly, "I can do it myself, Bunny."

"Yeah right, I know… Uh, I'll be in the kitchen if ye want anything, alright?"

"Kay."

And Aster left, closing the door softly behind him.

Man, it was quiet in here. That kind of quiet that's actually really loud because it presses on your eardrums, deafening them completely.

"Ugh…" Jack said again, to no one, he realised, because he was alone now.

He'd been lying when he said he could get changed on his own. He was sure if he even tried, he'd end up flat on his face in seconds, so he settled for just removing his trousers, shirt and shoes and curling up under the crispy cold duvet in his boxers and socks.

Within seconds of his head touching the pillow, he was fast asleep.

…

When Jack finally woke up again, he had no idea what time it was, but when he looked around the room, it was very dark and the curtains were drawn. A snoring sound told him that Tuff was in his own bed now, across the room from him.

He tried to fall back asleep, but found it impossible now that he was up. He slowly, groggily, swung his legs over the side of the bed and fumbled around by his pillow, looking for his phone, which he usually kept plugged in, charging, next to his head when he slept.

And then he remembered the circumstances in which he'd fallen asleep last night.

Hmm…

He glanced down at his crumpled trousers on the floor and reached down. They were heavier than the fabric should've been on it's own. Sure enough, his phone was still in the back pocket and Jack fished it out.

The battery was dead.

Typical.

But there was something else in the same pocket… A piece of paper?

Jack pulled it out and unfolded it. He couldn't see anything in the darkness of the room, so he leaned across and turned on the bedside light. Tuff was a super heavy sleeper so he knew it wouldn't disturb him.

It was a sheet of lined paper that had been folded up several times and written on it in scrawly handwriting were the words;

 _Just in case, H._

And underneath that, a phone number...

...

 **oooooooooh a phone number! What can that mean?**

 **Again, sorry for the wait. I've had a pretty bad couple of weeks tbh. I've lost my best friend of 15 years because of a dumb argument about an even dumber boy and so I've been pretty lonely. Maybe that's why I wrote this chapter? Anyways I hope you don't hate me too much and don't forget to review if you liked it xx**

 **Shoutouts**

 **Two of the broken masks: Is this friendship escalation enough for you? It's gonna get better I promise. Thanks for the review and for sticking with me through this xx**

 **HanyouExorcistAlchemist48: 4321... Liftoff?**

 **pikianoa: I honestly found it so hard to write this chapter and keep away from writing it as JackRabbit, cos I definitely ship them in the RotG universe! But no, here they're exclusively best bros... I do love Bunny, he's an awesome character. Thanks for the review x**

 **Snowflakesandangels: So much restrain was needed to keep this strictly HiJack... I love JackRabbit almost as much!**

 **A Frozen Shadow: Yup, a lot of self control was required for me to avoid turning this into a JackRabbit fic, but I agree, Hiccup needs to be the number 1 in this specific story x**

 **FightMeBoi: Thanks for your review and I'm so sorry for how long you had to wait for this chapter x hope you're not too mad at me...**

 **Kevin4baconhugs: EVERY FOLLOWER OF THIS STORY SHOULD BOW TO YOU because your review is the only reason this chapter happened. I was considering abandoning this story because I'd lost motivation but your review reminded me of how much I love writing and getting responses like yours from people who actuallu care about what I'm writing. So thank you so much xx**

 **...**

 **Okay, so a lot of you seemed to like the subtle JackRabbit happening last chapter. Does anyone want me to try writing a little JackRabbit one-shot? I do adore the ship and I've never actually tried writing it. Would anyone be up for it? Let me know xx**


	9. Overthinking

**Next chapter here we go! Gotta go into a lesson now so no shoutouts or anything this time... Sorry.**

...

Jack didn't understand.

 _Just in case?_ What did that mean? He had a pretty solid guess who _H_ was and whose phone number was written underneath, but what Jack couldn't fathom was why Hiccup had left it to him…

But after a moment, Jack realised he didn't care about the reasoning behind it, and a strangely warm, fuzzy feeling overcame him as he dropped back against his pillow, still holding the slip of paper close to his chest.

This was amazing.

In what situation does one person give another their phone number unless they want to talk to them again? None, and that meant that Hiccup obviously wanted to talk to Jack again!

He looked back at the paper, then to the ceiling and then back again.

He couldn't help but let out a little squeak of excitement and had to shove his face into the pillow, though he knew Tuff wouldn't wake up even if a hurricane was blowing through their room.

And if Hiccup had given Jack his number, what did he mean by that? Was it just a friendly gesture, a way of making Jack feel better after the rough night he'd had? To let him know he had a friend? Or, had he meant it as something more?

Oh man, Jack hoped so…

He pushed his face harder into the pillow, desperately trying to stifle his high pitched giggles. Aster was in the next room over, and he was a very light sleeper…

Jack's mind was racing.

This was like the beginning of some super cheesy romance novel. And Jack was the protagonist of it all. Was this where it all was gonna start? His first serious relationship, he meant?

Jack suddenly sat himself bolt upright again, clenching his fists around the blankets over his legs. No, he was jumping to conclusions… What if _Just in case_ meant literally that.

 _Just in case you realise you've left something behind…_

 _Just in case you want to sue me for 'kidnapping'..._

 _Just in case_ could mean anything.

 _Just in case you think you want to see me again?_

Yes, Jack hoped the least one had been the implied meaning.

Damn, he was still feeling drunk and weird. What time was it? Jack leaned across his bedside table and began feeling about for Tuff's phone, which he knew was always kept right next to the plug socket. It took a minute, but he found it and clicked it on. The screen was so bright it nearly burned out his retinas, but he could still read it.

4:48am.

Whoa, Jack had been asleep for almost the whole day and night… And of course, now he couldn't get back to sleep again.

Well, he might as well go make himself some breakfast then, he thought. Even though it's technically still the middle of the night.

Whatever. Jack swung his legs around again and tested his weight against them. Finding them to be as stable as they could be, he leaned forward on them and attempted to stand up. He fell back a few times because his knees were shaking so much but eventually he managed to keep himself upright long enough to stagger over to the bedroom door and open it. He realised he'd forgotten to turn off his bedside light, but didn't bother to go back over to it. Tuff could easily sleep through it and Jack wasn't sure his legs could make that three metre trip anyway.

Leaning against the doorframe, Jack looked up and down the corridor. Jack and Tuff's room was the only shared bedroom. Also in their flat- well technically, you could call it a house… Aster, Jack and Tuff had bought the bottom floor flat of the building and Kristoff, Flynn, Sandy and North lived in the one above. But since they were all friends, they essentially shared the two floors of the place... Anyway, on Jack's floor there was a kitchen, a bathroom, and two bedrooms, as well as the lounge, which was the most shared room of the two flats, since the lounge in the flat upstairs had been converted into another bedroom. Anna had pretty much moved in with Kristoff about a month ago, so they wanted a bigger room, and the guys all figured no one needed two lounges anyway so it got a switch up.

Jack could hear aster snoring softly from his bedroom, because the door had been left ajar. Jack also knew that Aster was a ridiculously light sleeper…

As Jack began to creep down the corridor towards the kitchen, he was hit by another realisation. To get to the kitchen, you had to walk through the lounge and open a very creaky glass-paned door.

And as he rounded the corner into the lounge, he was smacked in the face with yet another major problem.

The lounge was a bombsite of loudly snoring, sleeping people. Somehow, Kristoff, Anna, Flynn, Rapunzel, North, Sandy, Gogo and Astrid had all managed to cram themselves into the tiny room, sprawling themselves out across the two sofas and the somewhat limited floorspace.

Jack groaned. He needed to get through this wreckage in order to get to the kitchen…

Okay, plan of action.

Jack's still slightly hungover mind was pretty proud of the plan it'd managed to conjure up. He took a few steps forward, pausing when he reached the awkward small gap where the arms of the two sofas met. It was a common fact that everyone in the house had managed to get one hell of a bruise smacking their hip on this point when they weren't paying attention. So trying to squeeze through it when your legs barely work anyway and the gap is meshed in random limbs sticking out from the sofas became a much harder challenge than Jack was expecting it to be.

It seemed that his friends had at least kept some kind of chivalry when they'd crashed, since all the girls were on the sofas and the guys had taken to the floor. However, that didn't really make much difference to Jack since it just meant he had to be extra careful with his footing since the bodies he had to maneuver around were bigger.

As he was taking a cautious step over North's legs, a voice suddenly came from the sofa to his right.

"Jac-?"

Oh crap, who'd woken up? He spun around, realising too late that he was in an incredibly compromising position, standing over Flynn, halfway through a step.

Astrid was stirring, rolling over to face the back of the sofa, elbowing Gogo in the process. Neither of the girls seemed to be awake though

Jack sighed in relief, and finished his step over Flynn, giving himself a little triumphant fistpump when he finally reached the kitchen door and grasped the handle. He gave one last look to the room before opening the door, forgetting about the creak, and having to stop suddenly.

Keeping one eye on his sleeping friends, he pushed the door open as slowly as humanly possible, stretching the creak out until it wasn't really a creak, more of a high-pitched drone, drowned out by the snoring.

Once in the kitchen, he flicked on the light and shut the door behind him. Thank god that's over… Jack collapsed into a chair at the kitchen table and leaned back, shutting his eyes. His legs and head still hurt like hell.

As he sat there, watching the shadowing shapes through the glass door separating the lounge and kitchen, he remembered something else. Had Astrid been dreaming about him? She'd definitely been mumbling his name in her sleep, that was for sure.

Jack grinned to himself.

Drunk jack was such a flirtatious twat when he wanted to be, and that side of him was starting to wake up now.

That was when he realised he was still holding the slip of paper in his hand.

 _Just in case, H._

He didn't have his mobile phone on him right now, but the landline phone was right in front of him, on the kitchen table, surrounded by empty bottles from the pre-drinks carnage that had taken place the night before- or would that be the night before the night before?

Whatever.

He could do it.

He could call Hiccup right now.

He could call Hiccup and tell him how completely head over heels he was for him...

Or he could listen to the sober half of his brain, telling him not to be such an idiot, and to at least wait until morning. He wasn't about to call his crush while he was totally drunk and not even able to string an unimportant sentence together, let alone a confession of love.

Yeah, he'd at least leave it until morning…

He rolled his head over his shoulder to look at the clock on the kitchen wall.

Nearly 5am…

Damn, this was going to be a very long night.

...

 **Until next time xxx**


	10. Shreddies and Secrets

**Well hey there guys... Sorry for any confusion on the upload of this one but it did that weird code thing that fanfiction sometimes does for stupid reasons... so I had to reupload it and also rewrite all the shoutouts, so sorry if they seem a little unenthusiastic or rushed. It's nearly midnight here and I have college at 8:30 tomorrow...**

...

Hiccup

Hiccup wasn't going to lie when he said that last night had been stressful for him. And he also wasn't going to try and pretend that he had slept at all since Aster and Jack had left his apartment. If it wasn't enough that he'd needed to deal with Jack and make sure he got home safely, right after he'd gone, Hiccup's phone had started buzzing.

The amount of drunk texts he'd received from Tadashi that day had been astonishing. At least one every twenty seconds for about two hours straight. Most of them had been complete nonsense, just jumbles of letters and numbers, but when they did make sense, they were fantastically amusing.

-yo h whair !did u, goo?;-

-thairs a reely ho/tt pinaple here ,m-

-im guna kisss her!"-

-wayt nevm#ind it wus jus/t fred-

-hav yoo evur bean to freds?./ iTS HUUUuuGGEE-

-nuhnite hICcup cvv-

Apart from wanting to kiss a really hot pineapple, it didn't seem like Tadashi was in any trouble. He was at Fred's place too, by the sounds of it. Fred was the son of the manager of Yoji and he was a pretty responsible guy when he wasn't goofing around. Tadashi was still able to use his phone, which told Hiccup that he wasn't too badly out of it… He'd be fine.

Besides, Hiccup was expecting a phone call.

Jack

Jack wasn't sure how long he'd been sitting stoic, staring unblinkingly at the clock on the wall, but judging by the fact his eyes were stinging beyond belief and he now had learnt the exact duration of one second, it had been too damn long.

What even was the time again?

"Jack?"

At the sudden noise that wasn't ticking or a snoring drone, Jack fell clear out of his chair and landed in a heap on the tiled floor.

"What'cha doin' on the floor, lad?" A flurry of bright red filled his vision as a familiar Scottish voice spoke to him and he was pulled gently back to his feet, onto the chair again.

"Merida? I didn't know you were here…" Jack said lazily, trying to find his voice. He hadn't actually spoken out loud for several hours after all.

"Yeah, ah was in Aster's room, duh. Anyway, what're you staring at the wall fer?" Merida had her hair up in a bun, but it was clear that her hair was not used to being in a bun, as it stuck out at weird odd angles, as if she'd been rolling through a hedge head first.

"In Aster's-? Oh yeah, right. Girlfriend… I forgot." Jack had almost forgotten Merida and Aster were together, what with Aster being so nice to him last night. That's what friends do though, right?

"Is Aster still asleep?" Jack asked. He just now noticed that Merida was dressed in only a tank top and pyjama shorts. This realisation forced Jack to glance down at himself, and he sighed in relief when he saw that he'd had the sense to at least put on a t-shirt before venturing out to the kitchen. However, he was still only in boxers down under. Merida didn't seem to notice or care, thank god.

"Yeah, he'll be out for a coupla hours, ah reckon. But why the 'eck are you up and doin' nothin' at seven in the mornin'?"

Seven? Hmm, well that answered that question…

"How long've you been sittin' there, Jack?" She kneeled in front of him now, her face anxious and concerned.

"Uh, n-not too long. Don't worry 'bout me. I'm just y'know, waiting for this hangover to pass." Jack found himself chuckling nervously. "What about you? How come you're not still smashed?"

"You know the party was the day before yesterday, right?" Merida raised an eyebrow. "Ah'm not that much of a lightweight, thanks. Ah'm offended by that accusation."

"Sorry." Jack mumbled.

"Seriously though, are y'alright?"

Jack nodded.

Merida considered him for a second, not sure whether to believe him or not. "O-kay… Well, I was jus' gonna grab somethin' to eat before ah head out to work. You want anythin' while I'm here?"

Jack shook his head. He'd come to the kitchen hoping to get something to eat, but somehow that whole concept had become completely insignificant to him now.

"C'mon, you need to eat somethin', Jack." Merida said, as she bent down to get some cereal out of the cupboard. "Y'aint had anythin' but alcohol in yer stomach for a few days and that's not good fer you, y'know…"

"Yeah, s'pose… Okay." To be honest, Jack just wanted to stay on Merida's good side today. He knew how crazy she got when she needed to be, and he was in no state to be able to deal with an angry Scot right now.

"Shreddies good?" She asked, straightening up again with a blue box, shaking it a little, making the signature cereal shimmying sound.

"Mmm-hmm."

"You guys got any milk?" Merida floated across to the fridge, littered with dumb, but memorable photos of the gang. There were photobooth strips from fairs, polaroids from when Anna tried to be a vintage tumblr hipster and loads of other random disposable camera photos of everyone pulling dumb faces and grinning like idiots in various different places. The zoo, the pier, an art gallery they all visited last year, the park-

The picture of them all at the park was Jack's favourite. All of them were there that day. Even some friends of Astrid's showed up. Jack hadn't bothered to learn their names, but all in all, about twenty people had been crammed somehow into that single snapshot. They'd gotten a random bystander to take the photo for them, so there was no one missing from it.

Maybe that was why Jack liked it so much. In most of the other photos, it was either Anna or himself missing from the group because they'd been the ones taking the photo. Jack liked making memories like that, but rarely noticed that by being the one to take the snaps, he'd avoided being a part of them.

Oh well, they were memories that made him smile anyway.

He looked at the park photo more closely as Merida began rummaging through the fridge. Jack, Tuff and Gogo were at the front, pulling goofy faces and making peace signs. Behind them were Honey, Elsa, Anna, Ruff and Flynn, all posing like models, as usual. Off to the side, Aster and Merida were having an intense piggyback race towards the camera with North and Tooth. And in the back, Astrid, her three nameless friends, Sandy, Kristoff and Rapunzel were tossing a frisbee between each other, but were all waving to the camera regardless. The blue blur that was the frisbee was inches from smacking into Kristoff's face. A moment captured just before it hit.

Everyone was happy that day.

Jack smiled. Man, he loved his friends…

"Earth to Jack!" Merida was right in his face now. "Where do you keep the milk?"

"Oh, uh, dunno if we have any…" Jack shrugged. "If there's none in the fridge, I dunno where else it'd be." Where else do people keep milk other than the fridge after all?

"Ugh, you guys are 'opeless!" She groaned, plonking the cereal box onto the table next to me and then reaching to grab two bowls and two spoons. "Dry cereal it it then…"

"Dry shreddies?" Jack gasped, in mock fear, "Are you trying to kill us?"

"Man up." She replied, sitting at the chair opposite Jack and beginning to shovel the dry cereal into her mouth. She quickly stopped however, throwing the spoon down and pulling a disgusted face. "Ugh no, that was a bad idea…"

"Told you so." Jack teased.

"Shut it, you." She snapped, tossing her bowl into the sink (thank god it was plastic) and standing up again. She pulled a single hairband out of her hair with a great amount of tugging and wrenching and shook her mane about, letting it cascade down her back, before snatching Jack's bowl away too and taking it to the sink.

"Don't eat dry shreddies, they're gross. But you need to eat somethin'."

Jack looked at her blankly.

"I know you ain't gonna look after yerself properly once I'm gone, so I ain't leaving til I know you've eaten, okay?" She began searching through cupboards again, looking for anything edible. "Toast it is then!" And she pulled out a loaf of bread in a bag, that Jack knew had been in there well past its expiry date, but was honestly too unbothered to mention it.

A few minutes later, the two of them were sat at the table again, eating slightly blue, buttered toast, trying to ignore the deafening snores coming from the next room.

"D'you reckon they're gonna wake up soon?" Jack asked, jerking his head in their direction.

"Probably…" Merida mumbled, mouth full of mouldy toast. "Well, I mean Anna can smell food from a mile away so she'll be up any second I reckon-"

"Who's making buttered toast?" Anna suddenly appeared in the doorway, sniffing the air like a bloodhound.

"Okay, what the hell?" Jack's eyes were wide. Girls…

The door had creaked so loudly when Anna had swung it open that the groans of people coming back to consciousness could be heard coming from the sofas and floor behind her, and one by one, the rest of the group all appeared too.

"Mornin' sleepyheads!" Merida called happily, seeming to find it hilarious that they were all spectacularly hungover still.

A low grumble of 'good morning's arose from the guys as they all stumbled their way into the kitchen with Jack and Merida. It was pretty cramped in here, and Jack wondered if everyone would fit. The answer, no.

As the guys all headed straight to the cupboards, grabbing food for themselves, the girls came and collapsed on the chairs surrounding the small table. Astrid was the last out of the lounge so by the time she reached the table, there were no chairs left. She gave Jack a pleading look, and Jack, getting the hint, scooched over and let her share half of his chair. As she plonked into it, Jack had to put an arm around her waist to stop her falling sideways off it.

"Thanks Jack." She smiled, rubbing her eyes and stretching her arms up. As she brought them back down, she rested one hand on top of Jack's and held on tight.

"What happened to you last night, Jack?" Gogo asked, wide eyed in comparison to the near-dead looking Rapunzel slouched beside her. "I mean, where'd you go when we couldn't find you?"

"Uh, some guy took me home and I slept in his bed-" Jack stopped, realising he was phrasing this completely wrong. "I mean, a guy I saw earlier kinda helped me out into his car and I fell asleep and then I woke up at his place-"

"In his bed…?" Gogo repeated, eyebrows disappearing into her fringe.

"No no, not like that, I mean. He- he tried to help me get home 'cos I was so drunk and then I fell asleep in his car so he took me to his place and then I woke up and Aster came and got me and brought me home again and- oh jeez, I'm making this sound way weirder than it was…"

"You let a stranger put you in his car and you trusted him?" Gogo was frowning now, on the verge of shouting. "And then you woke up in his bed, after losing consciousness in his car? Do you even realise how dangerous that could have been? I mean, how stupid can you-?"

"Gogo!" Astrid snapped. "Jack was drunk. Since when do horrifically drunk people make rational decisions?" She squeezed my hand. "Don't have a go at Jack. He could barely walk and Aster said that guy saved his life by getting him out of there and making him sleep it off. Yeah, it was dangerous, but Jack's not an idiot. He'd have known not to go with a stranger if he didn't think he could trust them. Right, Jack?"

Jack nodded.

Wow, he'd not thought about that. How lucky it was that Hiccup had found him that night, he meant… What if someone not as helpful had gotten to him first? Jack would've liked to say that he wouldn't've gone with someone he didn't trust, but to be honest with himself, he hadn't even seen Hiccup's face until he was already in his car and it was too late.

What if it hadn't been Hiccup? Jack didn't want to think about what might've happened in that case…

But that didn't matter. Hiccup had found him, and he was fine. In fact, he was more than fine now.

"Jack, hey. You listening to me?" Gogo clicked her fingers in front of his face. "Promise us that you'll never go off with a stranger like that again, okay?"

"Okay. Sorry for making you worry." Jack tried to sound as sincere as possible. He knew they were just looking out for him, but for god's sake, he was technically an adult. He didn't need a bunch of girls telling him what to do. "I uh, I think I'm gonna go back to bed for a bit now." Jack tried to shift out of the seat, and it took a few seconds for Astrid to let go of him. When she did, she gave him a puppy-dog look for a second before resuming conversation with the others like nothing had happened.

Jack was never going to understand how girls worked…

He ignored the boys rummaging through cupboards and headed straight back towards his room. Maybe Tuff would be up, he half-hoped, half-dreaded. Jack wanted someone to talk to about Hiccup. And to be honest, at this point, he was still feeling a little brave from the drops of alcohol trapped in his bloodstream.

Maybe now was the right time to tell someone his big secret.

Jack reached his room and pushed open the door. Tuff was indeed awake, lying on his back, scrolling through his phone, laughing every so often at something.

"Hey Tuff." Jack cleared his throat as he shut the door behind him.

"Oh hey man, I thought you'd be gone for a bit longer, if you know what I mean…" Tuff exaggerated a wink face and sat up to look at him. "Dude, tell me everything. Was she hot?"

"What?"

"Well, you disappeared, so you got some, right?" Tuff asked, leaning forward eagerly as Jack sat on his own bed.

"'Got some'?" Jack repeated, slightly confused.

"Oh c'mon man, don't play dumb with me. Did you get it with some chick or not?"

"What? No, of course not!" Jack had been expecting Tuff to have a different reaction to his best friend going missing for a day and a half. He thought he'd at least be worried, not curious as to whether he got laid or not…

"Don't lie to me, dude. Where else could you've gone?"

Jack frowned.

Tuff's face began to fall, comprehension of his insensitivity dawning on him.

"Jack-?"

Jack shut his eyes. Could he tell him? Should he tell him? Damn, was this the right time? Would Tuff take him seriously, or would he think it was a joke? Maybe it'd ruin their friendship… But Tuff had been Jack's best friend since middle school. Since the first day when nobody had known anybody and Jack had been the shy brown haired, brown eyed kid in the corner of the playground. He'd trusted Tuff with everything ever since he came running up to him, a huge freshly caught, jumping frog in his hands, a great big toothy smile on his face.

Best friends for as long as Jack wanted to remember…

Jack took a deep breath and opened his eyes.

"Tuff, can I- can I tell you something?"

…

"Uh sure dude. Why're you getting all serious though? It's kinda creeping me out." Tuff was trying to be funny. Jack wished he'd stop. But then again, why should he? That was just how Tuff was. Never a dull moment with him as a friend.

"Tuff, this is serious. I- I've been meaning to tell you this for a while now, but I just- I never could figure out how to say it, I mean- I uh…"

Tuff frowned and scratched his cheek.

"Crap, I don't even know how to phrase this-"

"Dude, are you trying to come out?"

Jack completely froze, eyes widening at his best friend.

"W-what? How did you-?"

"Jack, my friend… If you were trying to keep it a secret, you really don't know how to keep a secret very well. I'm your best buddy, right? Did you really think I haven't noticed how you've never had a girlfriend, or even been interested in girls when the topic comes up? I saw the way you'd look at all the other guys when we went on all those day trips. And um, I might've never told you this, but you're a pretty epic sleep-talker, dude… Your dreams are melodies to listen to sometimes, I tell ya."

"But I don't-" Jack was speechless.

"I'm honestly just really shocked that it took you this long to tell me, or anyone for that matter. I mean, if you'd told me when we were younger, maybe I wouldn't've believed you, but now… I figured it out on my own, dude."

"And…?" Jack bit his lip.

"And what? You're gay. I don't care. Whatever floats your boat, man." Tuff flashed a grin, and then, sliding his phone into his pocket, stood up and rocked on his heels. "Is that toast I smell?" And just like that, he disappeared out of the room, headed to join the others in the kitchen.

Jack shot up. "Hey Tuff!" He caught him just before he left the room, "D-don't tell the others yet, okay?"

Tuff chuckled a little, but nodded and traced his fingers in a zipper over his mouth before rushing off down the corridor.

Jack took a step back. He collapsed onto the bed, not sure whether to laugh or cry.

That was it. He'd done it. It was over.

It had been that damn easy…

He smiled and shoved his face into his pillow. It'd felt so good to finally tell someone. Especially someone as special as Tuff.

Jack rummaged around the floor by his bed, searching for his phone. He knew it was dead, but the charger was positioned right next to his head and he quickly plugged it into his phone and watched as the screen flashed on, taking about forty seconds to load completely.

The piece of paper with the all important number was in his pocket. Dare he do it now?

Heck yeah, he did. He'd just completely shattered the boundaries of his comfort zone. Why not go the extra mile while he was so ecstatic?

With shaking fingers, he dialled the number and brought the phone to his ear.

It rang once.

It rang twice.

Shit!

Jack hung up and threw his phone down onto the bed again. No way. He couldn't do it. What the hell would he say? He needed a plan. A script or something… At least some kind of topic of conversation so it wasn't awkward.

He'd call Hiccup at some point for sure.

Just not right this second.

...

 **This chapter was pretty important for me... I finally came out as bisexual to my mum today, and let's just say, I wish my mum was as understanding as Tuff... She wasn't. I love Tuff's character. I think he'd be a great, trustworthy, understanding friend, when he's not goofing around and fighting with Ruff, that is.**

 **Okay, I forgot to include these last time so DOUBLE SHOUTOUTS**

 **Kevin4baconhugs: I'm glad I left a smile on your face. It leaves one on mine knowing that my story can have such an effect on others xx thanks for reviewing and motivating me! Hope you enjoyed this one.**

 **FightMeBoi: Okay... your username intimidates me, I'm sorry.**

 **A Frozen Shadow: Sorry for the short chapters but I hope this one broke my streak of tiny chapters because it's so damn looooooong! Thanks for the review and for sticking with this story x**

 **girlmixi: Thanks for sticking with it here! And for always reviewing xx**

 **I am a Spoon not a Fork: Okay, my idea here is that the girls live on the other side of town, but there spend so mcuh time in te guys' apartment that they might as well live there anyway... I have some friends like that and I find it hilarious that they know their way around my house better than their own. Thanks for reviewing xx**

 **Snowflakesandangels: Righty-ho *cracks knuckles* JackRabbit it is then! Not for this fic, but I may start a new one for that particular ship... hehehe**

 **Two of the broken masks: Wow, your reviews never fail to make me smile... SO MUCH CAPS AND EMOTION I'm glad you enjoyed it this much xxx Next chapter should be up soon**

 **K3nZ13: Holy hell, what a review! To say you made my day with that would be one hell of an understatement... Thank you so much for your support with this! I'm looking forward to writing the phone call scene as much as you are to reading it! Until next time xxx (can I say thank you again or is that way too polite? THANK YOU)**

 **...**

 **Okay, thanks again for reading and don't forget to review if you liked and want to read more xxx**


	11. -You've Been Tagged-

**Okey dokes, here ye are. And I have a feeling you are all going to be happy with me for this one! Won't give too much away but sorry if there's any ooc moments here. It's late...**

...

The next three or four hours went by rather uneventfully for Jack. He spent at least half an hour sitting completely dumbfounded on his bed, mouth gaping and closing again rhythmically as he tried to figure out how the hell Tuff could've known. It wasn't like Jack was a very flamboyant person, or ever made it clear to anyone that he wasn't interested in girls… In fact, he'd spent every moment he could trying to persuade everyone around him that he indeed as straight as straight could be. He'd spoken to the boys about girls before and been a part of the group when they'd all gone out to strip clubs and all that.

Apparently he wasn't a very good actor though.

If Tuff had figured it out… What about everyone else? Tuff wasn't famous for being the most perceptive person of the group, so if he knew… oh god, what if the girls already knew? No, if they did, surely they would've said something about it by now. Or at least asked him, right?

After getting dressed, and realising his head didn't thump quite as violently now, he plugged his phone into the wall to charge while he headed back to the kitchen to actually get something to eat. The chatting had died down about twenty minutes before so Jack assumed everyone had either gone to work, a 9am class or back to sleep. Jack didn't have any classes today, and he'd booked the entire weekend off work for the benefit of not having to make and serve coffees with a killer hangover.

Of all the guys living in the house, most of them attended the same university on the other side of the town. Those who did, along with Jack, were all in their second year and had spent their first year in accommodation together. Moving in together after that had been the easiest and most obvious thing to do, so they went for it. Jack was studying law.

Now don't jump to conclusions here, he didn't want to be a lawyer. It wasn't his ambition anyway… He just really enjoyed the subject and found it interesting so chose to study it for three years. Aster, North and Elsa were in most of his classes, doing the same course as him. It was great to have friends there with him, especially to help with the ridiculous piles of homework they were given every week.

Jack wondered for a moment whether Hiccup was a student too. Or in fact, if he was Jack's age even. He had a car, so he must be at least seventeen. And he had his own apartment… or was it shared with someone? Jack hadn't seen anyone else there, but then again, he'd been asleep for most of his stay, hadn't he?

Jack glanced to the kitchen door, thinking of his phone, still plugged in charging in his bedroom.

There was one way he could find out everything he wanted to know…

"Goddammit, just eat something." Jack scolded himself and began searching through cupboards for anything edible. Eating usually took his mind off stressful situations… That mouldy toast he'd shared with Merida felt like it had been eaten years ago. He managed to salvage a few thin slices of (not entirely blue) bread and some nutella scrapings from the jar. More toast it was then…

As Jack ate, he decided to check up on his social media. He opened Flynn's laptop, which had been left on the kitchen table and quickly signed in. Everyone knew Flynn's login, but Flynn himself wasn't aware that they did.

And they all hoped it would stay that way… Hacking Flynn's own twitter and poster random tweets that sounded like things he'd say was hilarious because he'd go a little more insane with every tweet, thinking he was doing it without thinking. Once he actually didn't use his phone or laptop for an entire week, determined to stop the 'phantom tweets'

Jack signed into his facebook (he'd be sure to delete his browsing history later) and went to his profile page. A notification caught his eye.

 _You've been tagged in 37 new posts._

Oh god…

Oh god no…

Really wishing he didn't have to, Jack clicked the message and was greeted by a photo album titled 'Vision Opening Night' popping up on screen.

The first photo wasn't too bad. In fact, it was a really nice picture. Jack remembered Honey snapping that one when the gang were walking from Yoji to Vision. They were all sat on a wall by the seafront grinning and looking relatively normal, in the face of what the night had in store for them. In the photo, Jack himself was squished in between Tuff and Astrid, with his arms around their shoulders.

As Jack clicked to the next picture, his silly smile faded into a frown. Next was a photo that had been taken inside the club. The whole group, bar Jack, were lounging on the sofas on the first floor, smiling like idiots at the camera.

That had been taken while Jack had been downstairs at the bar, wondering where his friends were. But he'd still been tagged in the photo.

What the hell? Clearly he wasn't in it so why had someone tagged him? As he continued to scroll through the album, he got annoyed. About fifteen more photos of the group came next, all without Jack present in them. In the eighteenth photo, he'd reappeared though.

Looking like a grumpy sod in the corner… Well, to be fair he was still sober at that point, and like Astrid had told him, nobody actually had fun at night clubs unless they were drunk.

Three or so photos later and things started kicking off again. There were pictures that Jack normally would've found embarrassing to see on his facebook wall. But there was something fantastic about them too. Something that made Jack's face split into a grin as he carried on clicking through.

Strobe lights lighting up Jack's laughing face as he danced with the group. Insane choreography from Tuff frozen in a snapshot. Astrid's hair and contents of her shot glass flying through the air as she swung her arms wildly. Rapunzel grinding up against Flynn, their mouths locked in a kiss. Aster and Merida squashing cheek to cheek to fit into a selfie. Gogo having an epic dance off against a guy with dark hair and converses.

And then, the short period where Jack had been included again, ended. The final ten photos of the album were similar to the ones before, but Jack was missing again.

That must've been when he'd been in the bathrooms, trying not to puke up his entire stomach.

Jack nearly choked on his toast when he flicked to the final photo in the gallery. It was a picture of him back on the dancefloor of the club with Astrid and Tuff. From the look of them, it was probably taken right after Jack and Astrid had downed those shots. But the reason for Jack now having a chunk of nutella'd toast stuck in his throat was because of what he and Astrid were doing.

Right in the centre of the shot, Jack and Astrid were dancing together so close, pressed against each other so tight, and their lips were only centimetres apart, and they were both grinning their faces off, eyes closed, as if something amazing had just happened…

 _Had anything amazing happened?_

As Jack continued to scan the photo, he noticed Tuff and Aster in the background, also smiling like idiots, pointing to the too-close-for-comfort pair in centre stage.

Oh god, was that why Astrid had been acting weirdly flirty that morning? Jack didn't remember anything happening between them, but then, he didn't remember anything at all after the fourth shot. They hadn't, had they?

Jack sat back in his chair and really thought for a second. Astrid was awesome, yeah, he wouldn't deny that. She was probably up there with Tuff as one of his best friends. They spent a lot of time together, going to see new movies, going out for lunch, playing video games for entire afternoons on rainy days.

But… That's what friends do, right? It didn't mean they were anything more. No. Jack needed to stop stressing out about all of it. They were both drunk, completely drunk beyond comprehensive thinking. It was just an unfortunate accident… Maybe Astrid didn't realise it was him and just went for it.

But what if she didn't? Why else would she have been acting so weird that morning?

"Urgh, shut up brain…" Jack grumbled to himself and flopped his head down on the table. "Why don't you come up with a nice, simple, not-confusing idea for once?"

 _Call Hiccup._

"Anything but that…" Jack groaned, but after a second, he seemed to stiffen in the chair. "Fuck it. If I don't do it now, I never will!" And with that statement, he stood up so quickly the chair nearly fell over backwards and he was off, rushing down the hallway to grab his phone. It seemed that everyone had left now. Unless they'd just gone upstairs. The flat was empty, anyway. When he finally switched it on and actually looked at his notification bar, it was full. Missed texts and calls, facebook messages, heck, there were even a few tumblr messages on there from his friends. They'd obviously been desperate to get through to him somehow.

Jack took the phone off charge. It was now at 74%. He then fished the slip of paper out of his pocket and laid it flat on his bed. He began to dial the number with shaking fingers.

Damn, were phone numbers usually this long?

He guessed that it just felt longer because he was taking so long to type every single number, making sure he didn't make a single mistake.

Eventually, the whole thing was there, displaying on the screen. Below the number were two flashing icons. A call button and a text button.

He could text Hiccup? Would that be easier? Definitely for him… He could spend hours making sure the text was perfect before sending it. With a phone call, there was almost inevitably going to be some word vomit that Jack wouldn't be able to cover up in time.

"No Jack, man up for god's sake!" He hoped scolding himself wasn't going to become a regular habit.

Before his brain could catch up in time and rethink the decision, he pressed the call button and brought the phone up to his ear.

 _Ring._

Shit, here we go.

 _Ring._

He might not pick up. He might be out…

 _Ring._

What if he doesn't pick up?

 _Ri-_

"Hello?"

Jack froze. He had not thought this through at all. What was he even supposed to say now?

"Hello?" Hiccup's confused voice repeated.

"H-hi, it's uh, it's me, J-"

"Jack?" Hiccup interrupted, "I was beginning to wonder when you'd call. How're you holding up?"

"Uh…" Jack was speechless. Hiccup remembered him, and was asking how he was… How was he meant to respond to that? "Yeah, I-I'm good now, I think."

"That's great to hear. What are you doing right now?"

"Calling you." Jack immediately facepalmed at his stupid answer.

Hiccup chuckled a little. "No, I mean, were you planning on going out at all today?"

"Uh don't think so, no…" Jack's eyes widened as he tried to remember what day it even was.

"Okay, that's good." Hiccup paused for a second, as if thinking to himself. "You still need to rest. I kinda feel responsible for what happened, and I don't want you to get sick or anything so I just wanted to check you're taking care of yourself and all that…"

"It wasn't your fault." Jack said quickly. How could Hiccup ever think it was his fault that Jack got completely wasted and passed out in the bathroom?

"No I know, I just- y'know, as soon as you got in my car, you were my responsibility…"

"Thank you so much for all that. Oh my god, I completely forgot to thank you, or even say hello, or anything really… Sorry, thank you." Jack blurted out in a string of apologies.

"You could barely keep your eyes open, let alone be able to say thanks. Don't worry about it." He paused again. "Thanks for calling by the way, but oh man, please ignore the dumb message I left with it. I was feeling really wistful and hipster when I wrote it. Thought I could romanticise the moment, y'know? Uh god, that just sounds weird…"

"No no, I thought it was cool. Mysterious and all that…" Jack replied, trying to keep a smile off his face and failing. "Knew it was you straight away though. You should've made it more like a riddle."

"Would you have even been able to solve a riddle in your state?"

"Yeah, good point." Jack couldn't stop the laugh this time. "So what do I need to do now, mister doctor man? I don't think I could go to sleep and 'rest' even if I wanted to."

"Right. Well from the sounds of it, you're quite a bit better so d'you maybe come and meet me for brunch?"

Jack's mouth fell open, and it took a few seconds for him to realise he was creating an awkward silence.

"I'm sorry, that was way too sudden. Maybe some other time-"

"No no no, yes!" Jack said way too quickly, the words tumbling off his tongue. "I would like that a lot."

He paused and could tell from the not-so-awkward, warm silence that Hiccup was smiling.

"W-where were you thinking?" Jack asked, after what he counted as a reasonable length of time.

"Uh, well I work in a Japanese restaurant on the other side of town. Yoji, you heard of it-?"

"Yes." Jack replied, maybe slightly too quickly.

"Ah okay cool. Yeah well I work there but I've got a day off today so we could get some brunch there maybe? I mean, I can get us a killer discount, if not totally free meals."

"Sounds good. I love that place." Jack was still struggling to speak like a normal human through the impossibly big smile on his face.

"Okay then. Meet me by the pier in an hour? Is that enough time?"

"Yep, perfect. See you then."

"See you, Jack. And don't drive if you're still not one hundred percent."

"Okay. Bye for now, Hiccup." Jack chuckled.

"Bye for now, Jack." Hiccup chuckled back.

And the call ended there.

Jack immediately collapsed back onto his bed, giggling like an idiot and hugging his phone to his chest. He kicked his legs up in the air and tried to suppress a squeal of excitement. He was meeting Hiccup! And it had been so damn easy…

He was meeting Hiccup.

In an hour…

Jack quickly checked his phone for the time.

10:49am

Jack hadn't bothered to check himself in a mirror at all that morning, but he didn't need to be told that he looked like crap. He felt like crap, so he couldn't look much better, could he?

Swiftly slamming his phone on charge again, he ran out of the room to the bathroom. The sight that met him as he stood at the sink, looking in the mirror, was not a pretty one. His hair was greasy and stuck to the left side of his face, while the right side stuck up in tufts of greyish-white. He had reddish rings around his eyes and even biggers dark bags under them. He felt gross since he hadn't showered in a few days but other than that, he seemed okay.

But if he wanted to make a good first (or would that be second?) impression on Hiccup, he needed to make himself better than okay. Better than just presentable.

Giving his reflection a little half smile, Jack sighed. It seemed he was gonna have his work cut out for him...

...

 **IT FINALLY HAPPENED. Jack called Hiccup and the ship is getting ready to leave the harbour, fellas! Hope you enjoyed, and also I'd like to know what you thought about the whole university idea. Especially Jack doing law... I don't know, it just kinda made sense for no reason in my head. Jack would make an awesome law student, always arguing and being good at getting his own way. When he wants to, that is.**

 **Shoutouts**

 **A Frozen Shadow: Thank you. My mum's started to get her head around it. I don't think she really believes me (since I have a boyfriend) which is annoying, but I can't do anything about it so I can't complain. Thanks for your review and for keeping up with the story x**

 **Snowflakesandangels: I feel like Jack is much more emotional and 'hysterical' in real life than he appears in RotG and I figured that came through last chapter too. Yep, that's the idea. Stan Lee is the owner. Fred is the son who just hangs out there all the time, eating free noodles. Tadashi works there because he's Fred's childhood friend and Hiccup got in through Tadashi and because Stan likes him. Hehe idk honestly... I wish I had a Tuff in my life right now tbh, but with reviews like these, who needs friends, eh? You're all so lovely and supportive anyway so thank you so much xx**

 **Kevin4baconhugs: Just wanna say, your profile pic is adorable. It always makes me smile every time I see it. So cute! You might need to stop getting used to quick updates though... They've never been a strong point of mine. Sorry? Thank you for keeping up with, and reviewing on this story!**

 **I am a Spoon not a Fork: Wow thank you for the capitalisd thank yous xxx I love reading your reviews so much so I figure it's only fair that I give them recognition for their fantastic support. I wish I had a friend like Tuff. He's not always been a character I liked that much, but as I started writing this fic, I started delving deeper into his character and I think he'd be an awesome parallel and partner in crime to Jack. They'd be awesome white-haired buddies! Thanks for your support and I hope to hear from you soon x**

 **pikianoa: No no nothing too bad. My mum's just not sure how to react, I think. She's convinced it's a phase and I'm just confused, but there's nothing I can do to change her mind so whatever. It's my dad I'm worried about. He's super homophobic so I don't think I will tell him as long as me and my bf stay together. Pineashi could be a thing! EVERYONE PINEASHI IS THE NEXT HOT SHIP! Thanks for your review, it made me happy to know you care x**

 **Two of the broken masks: I'm pretty sure most of the girls know, but maybe only the most attentive of the guys... I think Aster probably does 'cos he's a smart guy, but only time will tell... Hehe Hope you enjoyed the phone call in this chapter and next chapter they'll finally meet in person when Jack's not totally incoherent.**

 **girlmixi: Both stories...? Oh god, now I feel guilty about not writing the next WYR chapter. I promise I'll get around to it and have it updated before next week. Thanks for your support too xx**

 **HanyouExorcistAlchemist48: Damn... Sounds intense. Mine was kind of more of a "Hey, I think I don't care what gender they are, as long as I love them. That okay?" and my mum was just kinda speechless fora second and then I had to explain what bi means... Thanks for your review x hope you enjoyed this chapter.**

 **...**

 **Okey dokey so there we go! Hope you likeyed and I'm gonna go to bed now 'cos tomorrow night it's Festive Night (which is basically a giant festival my village throws with xmas trees and hog roasts and stalls and markets and fake snow and lights and it's the most fun anyone ever has all year, and this year I'm taking my bf with me so it'll be good) and I need to sleep now because it's gonna be a late night tomorrow...**

 **Pls review if you liked and maybe shoot me some ideas for what could happen next...?**


	12. A Few Introductions

**Okay here we go. Just over a month... I'm so sorry. Please don't throw things at me! I'm going back to college tomorrow so bring on the STRESS but I wanted to get this out before I go back otherwise it may as well be on a permanent hiatus. Okay, I decided to play a little with the POV's in this one but I hope you like. BTW if you think they're both totally OOC, they're kind of meant to be. We've got a bit of a Punk!Hiccup and Nerd! Jack thing going on here... idk let's just see where it goes from here. Enjoy x**

...

Hiccup

"You working today?" Wasabi's voice drifted over the top of the pile of dirty laundry that was balancing precariously on the washing machine.

"No, Fred's Dad gave me and Tadashi the day off today. I think he assumed we would both still be hungover from yesterday." Hiccup half-yelled over the rumbling thumps of the machines.

To be honest, Hiccup was kind of happy about not having to work today. He simply couldn't get Jack out of his thoughts. Aster had taken him home and that had been it. No sign that he was okay. Sure, Hiccup had tried to find Jack on Facebook, but it seemed there were an unsurprising amount of people with the name Jack in the world, and without a surname to go on, finding him was pretty much hopeless. He'd even left his phone number with Jack in case he wanted to speak to him again. Now that he thought about it, maybe he should've left his number in Jack's phone when he'd had the chance.

What if he wasn't getting any better? How was Hiccup supposed to know if he'd even woken up yet? Jack could've gotten alcohol poison for all he knew...

"Lucky. I've got the late shift tonight. But I think Elinor's head chef this week so it won't be too bad. She's awesome." Wasabi brought Hiccup's mind back to the task at hand. The laundry.

"Yeah, she's nice. What time are you starting?" Hiccup climbed down from the step ladder he was standing on to reach the top washing machine. He got down backwards and managed to topple off and bump into Wasabi's shoulder as he did so. "Sorry."

"S'fine, yeah, I start at seven and finish at two…" He groaned, leaning back against the laundry basket and rubbing his forehead. "It's gonna be a long night." He paused, and then waggled an eyebrow at Hiccup, "You want me to bring you back some dumplings?"

"You know me too well." Hiccup laughed, "Yes please!"

"Okay, well, I should probably- oh jeez, I definitely need to go!" Wasabi jumped down from the counter after checking his watch for the time.

"Why? You just said you're not going til seven." Hiccup eyed his curiously as he began bundling up all his clean laundry into another basket.

"I," he announced, "have a date."

"Woah, what?" Hiccup immediately had to stop himself, for fear he was sounding rude. "I mean, with who?"

"Someone I met online."

Hiccup raised an eyebrow.

"We've skyped. She's a real person." Wasabi reassured him. "And we're going out for lunch. I was gonna take her to your place, but it's shut so I guess I'll have to improvise."

"What's her name?"

"Honey." Wasabi looked dreamily off over Hiccup's shoulder for a second. "She's so smart, and gorgeous, and she only live just around the corner. I'm meeting her at twelve, so I've gotta start getting ready." He started hurrying about, throwing random t-shirts onto the pile he was holding, before giving Hiccup a quick salute and rushing out the door.

Hiccup watched him for a minute as he crashed into walls, trying to balance his load as he climbed the stairs out of the shared launderette in the basement of the building.

After a while, Hiccup turned back to look down at the green shirt he was wearing, still with a dark stain of soy sauce down the collar.

"Wasabi's got a date…"

And he still didn't even know the surname of the guy he brought home last night.

He was really kinda hoping that Jack would want to talk to him again, hence the number he'd given him.

With a sigh, Hiccup started folding his shirts and trousers that had just come out of the tumble dryer, his mind wandering down a rabbit hole of worst case scenarios.

His musings were rather rudely interrupted by his ringtone.

Ring!

"Oh crap, where-?" Hiccup checked his pockets but couldn't find his phone in any of them.

Ring!

"Crap crap crap, where is it?!" He started throwing his folded laundry out of the basket desperately trying to find the source of the ringing.

Ring!

"Yes!" He finally found it at the bottom of the basket, he had no idea how it'd gotten lost down there.

He looked at the screen briefly and just realised it was coming from an unknown number before he answered it.

"Hello?"

The line stayed silent. Um…

"Hello?" Hiccup said again, moving closer to the stairs to try and improve the signal.

Eventually someone spoke. "H-hi, it's uh, it's me, J-"

"Jack?" Hiccup gasped, still a little breathless from the frantic rummaging for his phone. "I was beginning to wonder when you'd call. How're you holding up?"

The last time Hiccup had seen Jack, he could barely stand after all, so when Jack didn't reply straight away, he immediately started to worry.

"Uh…"

Hiccup didn't say anything as Jack also stayed quiet on the other end. He was most likely still a little out of it and struggling to form sentences successfully. "Yeah, I-I'm good now, I think."

Hiccup wasn't convinced in the slightest by Jack's shaky voice, but he tried to keep his own words light and cheerful. "That's great to hear. What are you doing right now?"

 _What was that, Hiccup?!_ He facepalmed himself at the stupid sudden question that had slipped out of his mouth.

There was a pause and then, "Calling you."

Hiccup tried not to laugh at Jack's adorably silly answer. "No, I mean, were you planning on going out at all today?"

 _Wow Hiccup, way to be subtle…_

"Uh don't think so, no…"

"Okay, that's good. You still need to rest." Hiccup grinned at himself for the quick thinking. "I kinda feel responsible for what happened, and I don't want you to get sick or anything so I just wanted to check you're taking care of yourself and all that…"

"It wasn't your fault." The sudden interruption from Jack made Hiccup raise his eyebrows for a second.

"No I know, I just- y'know, as soon as you got in my car, you were my responsibility…"

"Thank you so much for all of that. Oh my god, I completely forgot to thank you or even say hello, or anything really… Sorry, thank you." Jack blurted out in a string of apologies.

Hiccup was more than taken aback at his words and was quick to reply with his reassurances, "You could barely keep your eyes open, let alone be able to say thanks. Don't worry about it." He thought back to that night, and at how dangerous the situation really had been, and felt almost angry at Jack for not being more worried about his own health. "Thanks so calling by the way, but oh man, please ignore the dumb message I left with it. I was feeling really wistful and hipster when I wrote it. Thought I could romanticise the moment y'know?" He immediately shut his eyes and cringed at what he'd said. "Uh god, that just sounds weird…"

Luckily, Jack didn't seem to be put off by his stupidity. "No no, I thought it was cool. Mysterious and all that…"

Hiccup's cheeks suddenly felt extremely hot.

"Knew it was you straight away though. You should've made it more like a riddle."

"Would you have been able to solve a riddle in your state?" Hiccup cocked an eyebrow, then realised Jack couldn't see it, and dropped it, shaking his head slightly.

"Yeah, good point." Jack laughed. Damn, he had a contagious laugh, but Hiccup somehow managed to stop himself from joining in. "So what do I need to do now, mister doctor man? I don't think I could go to sleep and 'rest' even if I wanted to."

 _Mister doctor man?_

"Right, well from the sounds of it, you're quite a bit better, so…" Hiccup bit his lip, wondering if he was really gonna continue and say what he was thinking of saying. "So d'you maybe wanna come and meet me for brunch?"

Jack didn't reply and for a terrifying moment, Hiccup thought he might've hung up. But then he heard the faint shudder of a breath and knew he was there.

"I'm sorry, that was way too sudden. Maybe some other time-"

"No no no, yes!" Jack's panicky voice suddenly came back, mumbling and slurring his words together. "I would like that a lot."

Hiccup smiled. It was one of those weird smiles that somehow makes your whole face warm up and he held that position for a minute before he remembered Jack was waiting for a response.

"W-where were you thinking?" Jack beat him to it and Hiccup immediately began scouring his brain for ideas. In the end, he told Jack about Yoji and they arranged to meet at the front of the pier at twelve and then go there for something to eat. Hiccup wasn't sure, but if possible, Jack sounded almost just as eager to meet up as he did.

Hiccup checked the time and realised with a jolt that he had just under an hour to get ready. Hurriedly piling up his laundry for about the third time that morning, he ran up the stairs out of the basement and then up to his flat.

Once there, one look in the mirror, and the fact that he was still in his pyjama shirt and jeans, let him know he definitely had his work cut out for him…

…

Jack

Hopping from foot to foot was all Jack could seem to do with himself as he waited by the pier entrance. It was pretty crowded, it being a sunny day and the beach often getting lots of tourists in.

He'd turned up on time, right?

"Yes, it's almost twelve o'clock…"

He'd turned up at the right pier, right?

"Yes, Jack. There's only one pier on this beach…"

He'd come on the right day, right?

"Jack, now you're being ridiculous. You're early, it's fine."

After a few seconds, Jack realised with a start that he'd been stood there talking to himself. Trying to shrug it off, so as to not look like a psycho to the passers by, he caught his reflection in the window of a tacky gift shop across the lift and gave it a quick smile.

He'd decided to wear his plain white shirt, which, yes, clashed with his hair, but he was also wearing a light grey coloured jacket which balanced it out a bit. Then he wore the same pale chinos from the other night (after finding them washed and folded at the end of his bed (courtesy of Rapunzel, no doubt (she was definitely the mum of the group)) and making sure that they were clear of any odd stains or smells). Of course, he'd showered and kind of swept his hair over to the right, trying to keep it looking neat-ish but failing as he always did. But whatever, his unruly locks always looked better stuck up everywhere, like a blizzard had just hit him backwards.

Overall, Jack thought he looked pretty damn good.

But then again, what did Jack's still slightly intoxicated opinion count for in the grand scheme of things? He could've looked like he'd _literally_ been hit backwards by a blizzard and be none the wiser…

"Stop stressing yourself out, Jack." He mumbled. "And for god's sake, stop talking to yourself!" He shook his head wildly, gaining a few odd stares from the people walking past.

Ignoring them, Jack reached into his brown leather messenger bag and pulled out his phone, but also dragging out and dropping to the floor, his keys and wallet. As he reached down to pick them up, he heard someone shouting his name.

His head perked up like a meerkat and his eyes quickly locked onto where the shouts were coming from. Driving slowly past on the seafront boulevard road stretch was a small yellow cube of a car, and in the passenger seat, Honey Lemon was leaning out and waving frantically at him.

"Jack! Hi!" She called. She disappeared for a second to speak to whoever was driving and then the car pulled up right next to the pavement where Jack stood. Honey reappeared and began firing questions at him. "What are you doing out here on your own? You should really be in bed, y'know. Where are you going? D'you want a lift?"

"Woah there. I'm good, Honey. Thanks." Jack held out his hands and stepped closer to the car. "I'm just uh- waiting for someone."

Honey turned her head and raised an eyebrow. "Waiting for someone? Oh Jack, that's awesome! Have fun on your date!" She giggled.

"No no, it's not like that- He's just, uh-"

"Don't worry. I won't tell the others." She tapped her nose knowingly and laughed again.

"What are you doing anyway?" Jack asked. He didn't recognise the car, so she wasn't with any of the gang.

"I just so happen to be on a date myself." She announced proudly. "Jack, this is Wasabi. Wasabi, this is Jack."

A muscled guy with warm eyes and his dreads pulled back by a bandana leaned forward and smiled, giving Jack a thumbs up sign. "How's it goin'?"

Jack returned the thumbs up and Wasabi spoke again. "Do I know you from somewhere…?"

"Uh… Don't know."

"You look so familiar." Wasabi was squinting at him now.

Luckily Honey chose that moment to interrupt. "So who is this guy you're meeting then? Do I know him? Is he cute?"

Jack's face plummeted to scarlet in seconds. "Honey, I told you it's not like that. He's the guy that helped me at the club the other night. We're just going out for lunch."

"Oh Jack, that's so cute! It's like a fairytale, but y'know, with alcohol and all that jazz. You need to keep me updated via text throughout the whole day, okay? I wanna know about all the juicy details!"

"There aren't gonna be any juicy details…" Jack groaned, sharing an eye roll with Wasabi, who seemed to have gotten a good grasp on Honey's overexcited personality even though he'd only just met her. "But sure, I'll text you…"

"Great! Have fun and I'll see you later! Don't be late back. Anna's making baked alaska for dessert!" She cooed, and the car sped away, right back into the slow moving traffic of the boulevard.

Jack rolled his eyes again, and then jumped when his phone beeped. He glanced down. A text from Honey.

 _Oh god, this was going to be a nightmare…_

Ignoring the texts, which were coming in every ten seconds, Jack focused on keeping an eye out for Hiccup. Right opposite the pier was a road crossing, and then the entryway to the busy high street. Jack assumed that if Hiccup was going to be walking from anywhere, it'd be from there, since he'd had to walk through from there to get to the pier.

Scanning the shoppers and tourists and locals and shop clerks, Jack suddenly realised something. He couldn't remember much of what Hiccup looked like. Beanie… But that really didn't help. What if he wasn't wearing it this time? Freckles… That wouldn't be visible until they were feet away from each other. Brown hair? Maybe… Or was it red? No, definitely brown.

So what did Jack have to go on at this point? He was looking for a brown haired guy about his age who may or may not be wearing a beanie and earphones…

Great.

A few more minutes of waiting… A few more doubts Jack started having about whether that phone conversation had been real… Hiccup had answered the phone, right? This wasn't all just some dumb incarnation of his lonely, confused mind, right?

Right?

"Jack!"

A shout, and Jack's eyes slid into focus to see a brown haired, freckled, beanie-wearing guy running across the road towards him.

"Jack, hi! Sorry I kept you waiting. I didn't really give myself enough time to get ready after all." He panted, yanking out his earbuds and grinning.

"You _are_ real…" Jack breathed, so quietly he could barely hear himself.

"Uh yeah, I was real last time I checked…" Hiccup laughed. "You okay?"

"Y-yep, just still a little amazed you actually came, I guess."

"Why wouldn't I?" Hiccup raised his eyebrows. He started talking again then, but Jack must've zoned out as he looked at him. He had been right about the brown hair, and the red beanie was there… Turquoise earbuds hung out of his white shirt and he had a dark green hoodie wrapped around his waist. The freckles were in fact, real, too… Dotted about, not just on his nose, but all over his face, neck and arms, all of which were a tanned olive colour.

"How's that sound?"

"Hmm?" Jack came out of his daydream with a jump.

"Yoji, then the pier?" Hiccup tilted his head, apparently amused by Jack's dazedness.

"Mmm hmm, sounds like fun." Jack nodded vigorously.

"Okay then. Shall we?" Hiccup turned slightly, back towards the high street, and winked. Jack was surprised he didn't faint right there and then. But he managed to hold his composure and followed Hiccup as they made their way through the crowded shopping streets to the restaurant that Jack _definitely hadn't first seen Hiccup by spying on him…_

…

Once inside and seated in Yoji, Hiccup began chatting animatedly to a few of the waiters while Jack scanned the menu.

"What would you like to drink, Jack?" Hiccup asked after a while. Jack bit his lip. "The Ringosai is really good here." Hiccup suggested, "It's like a cider but ten times better."

"I think I'll just have water…" Jack replied quickly, shuddering slightly at the thought of having to consume any more alcohol, especially with Hiccup. He'd had to deal with enough drunk Jack to last him a lifetime.

"You sure? Okay." Hiccup turned to the large guy behind the bar and told him what they wanted. "Two waters please." The man grunted something in Japanese before grabbing two glasses and filling them from the tap.

"So, I suppose we should get the awkward smalltalk out of the way, eh?" Hiccup swivelled in his seat to face Jack and gave him a lopsided smile. "Name, age, favourite colour. Go."

Jack stared at him for a second before answering, cheeks reddening. "Jack Frost. I'm nineteen. My favourite colour is blue."

"Okay. I'm Hiccup Haddock. I'm twenty one. My favourite colour is green."

Jack's lips twitched into a smile. This guy was adorable…

"Here's another one." Hiccup rested his elbows on the table. "Favourite movie, favourite artist, favourite author."

"Hmm…" Jack had to think about that one. "Howl's Moving Castle."

Hiccup looked surprised, but nodded in agreement.

"Fall Out Boy or Panic, don't make me choose."

Another amused nod.

"And uh… Patrick Ness?"

"Okay… all good choices there. Here are mine. Kick Ass. Fall Out Boy. J.R.R Tolkien."

"Wow. Never took you for a nerd…" Jack smiled.

"Never took you for a Ghibli fan, but there it is. Okay, one more." Hiccup shifted again in his seat. "Job, hobby, relationship status. Go."

Jack paused, thrown by the last one, but began to answer regardless. "Student, but part time job in a cafe. Guitar, I guess? And um, single. Your turn."

"I work here. I draw." He paused long enough for Jack to become curious and make eye contact. "And I'm single."

...

 **AWWWWWW I LOVED THIS CHAPTER!**

 **Hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing it. Also, can Honey and Wasabi become a thing? Because I think it's adorable and I think I'm gonna make it a thing! Aww**

 **Shoutouts**

 **pikianoa: Pineashi fanart... oh god, don't imagine it! I don't think I could handle the level of cringe if I had to write Jack making too much of an ass of himself so I hope this is satisfying enough... They're both adorkable weirdos after all!**

 **Snowflakesandangels: Poor Jack. He has got some stuff going on that he doesn't like sharing... I think that's what makes him so fun to write. Now he's got a Hiccup to worry about though... How's this gonna go down? I've had my fair share of fangirl moments this month too so don't worry about it! Hope you liked this chapter x**

 **Two of the broken masks: I think next chapter, I'm gonna get the boys on the pier, which should be fun! Maybe even chance for a little drama there? Who knows? Thanks for reviewing and I hope you liked this chapter x**

 **A Frozen Shadow: Not so much in this one, but next chapter will definitely contain some fluff of some shape or form (cos they basically just turned their brunch into a date so...)**

 **erohime928: Thanks so much for your review. I love reading long and well thought out ones like yours. Yeah, I agree with you. I'm writing Jack's friends to be kind of like the peer pressuring 'cool kid' group that Jack is always trying to be a part of but can't quite seem to connect with as a whole. Individually, I plan to explore each character for their strengths and flaws, but you're right. As a group, they can be pretty mean. It's deliberate, so don't worry. I love every one of the characters really! I promise! Hope you liked this chapter!**

 **vampireharry the 2: Thanks xx hope you liked this chapter!**

 **...**

 **Guys, I have another brainstorm to run by you. I've recently been watching a lot of those "24 hours in an abandoned shopping mall" and "A night in Ikea" videos because they're hilarious to me and I was thinking, who wants to see a fic where the gang have a go at this? Maybe we can get Jack, Hiccup, Rapunzel and Merida to try and urbanex an old mall, or deck it out for a night somewhere? idk it just sounds like it'd be a load of fun to write. Lemme know what you think in a review! x**

 **...**

 **Alrighty then. I've just been struck by an awesome idea for next chapter so better buckle yourselves in for it! Though I can't make any promises as to when it'll be coming to you as I suck at schedules (but you already knew that hahahaha)**

 **Please fave, follow and review if you liked xx**


	13. Basketballs and Dinosaurs

**OH BOY YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT HAPPENED... AGAIN! That dumb thing where you go to upload a story and it's all in code format. AAAARGH! Fanfiction, sort your bloody website out! So I did have a pretty long description here but I'm not gonna bother with one this time, cos I'm tired and wanna write the next chapter before I fall asleep. I'll just say that my inner DINOSAUR NERD definitely came through in this chapter (hence the title...)  
**

...

"No freaking way!" Hiccup cried, hopping up and down as another stuffed dinosaur fell into the claw machine basket. "No one ever wins this many times in a row. How are you doing this?!"

"I don't know. How many is that now?" Jack cheered, a massive smile stretching over his face as he gripped the joystick.

"Five!" Hiccup hugged the huge fuzzy toys to his chest, making Jack blush. "Jack, you are now the proud owner of five adorable stuffed dinosaurs!"

Jack's grin grew even more if possible, at the look of wonder that was etched upon Hiccup's face. "Jeez, I swear I'm usually no good at these machines!"

"Looks like it's just your lucky day…" Hiccup pushed two of the dinosaurs into Jack's arms and then bounced off to the next amusement machine, rummaging in his pocket for coins.

Jack smiled as he watched Hiccup fire up the claw machine. Their 'date', as they'd both pretty much decided upon it being, was going amazingly well. They'd had an awesome lunch at Yoji, and then walked along the seafront a few times, had ice cream on the beach wall, and now they were on the pier, spending all of their loose change (and then some) on the prize machines.

The pier was basically a giant funhouse with rides and cafes and arcade machines all over the bottom floor. It connected to the seafront by a long promenade walk of planks, which you could see through down to the crashing waves of the ocean below. If you paid a good sum of money, it was possible to get your name or maybe a message engraved on a plaque and put into the floor of the promenade. One of Jack's stinking rich uncles had given Jack a plaque for his birthday one year, so on their way along it, Jack found his name and pointed it out to Hiccup, who seemed absolutely amazed.

"I had no idea these were all people's names." He bent down to look at all the plaques. There were so many littering the floor that they could easily have been mistaken for just bronze plank dividers at this point. "Wow, that's really cool!"

The original pier itself had been well over fifty years old but it'd burned down seven years ago in some freak accident. Jack had liked the old pier, with it's weird games and old fashioned arcade things. But the new pier they'd rebuilt over the old frame was filled with tons of the coolest rides and games. Hell, there was even a go-kart track on the top floor. There was also a long balcony at the back with looked out over the sea, and at the islands visible from the coast. Islands? Hmm, more like random rocks that kinda just stuck up out of the sea...

Anyway, so far Jack had been on fire with the claw machines.

And Hiccup was revelling in the games and fun. Jack wasn't going to admit it anytime soon, but he was absolutely loving the aesthetic of his new beanie-clad, dinosaur-cuddling friend who was currently rushing around like a kid, excitedly pointing to one of those games where you throw a basketball through a hoop to score. "This one?"

"Go for it!" Jack dared him, hopping along to stand beside Hiccup as he pushed a coin in and picked up a basketball. As Hiccup readied himself to throw it, Jack stuffed the five dinosaurs into his messenger bag. They only just fit, with a little tail sticking out of one side and a clawed foot from the other.

"Just so you know, I suck at sports." Hiccup whispered to Jack before he chucked the ball full throttle towards the hoop…

And missed it completely.

In fact, he'd missed so incredibly that the ball hit the very top of the machines shell and bounced over it, thudding away across the arcade floor.

"I'll get it!" Jack chirped and rushed off to recapture it before a theft alarm went off or something. The pier was surprisingly quiet considering the amount of people there had been on the beach so the basketball didn't hit anyone on its crash course across the air hockey tables, and Jack managed to catch it right before it jumped into the dodgems rink.

Triumphantly holding it up, he swivelled around to take it back when he saw Hiccup rushing towards him.

"What are you doing? We've gotta put the ball back." Jack asked as Hiccup hurried across the arcade, dodging around a few kids carrying candy floss and clearly fighting a losing battle to keep hysterics off his face. "What are you-?"

"C'mon, let's run!" Hiccup grabbed Jack's hand and began sprinting, dragging him away from the arcade, towards the balcony.

"Why?" Jack stammered, struggling to keep up with Hiccup as the basketball fell from his grip and continued its journey across the floor.

"An employee just came up to me and asked where the ball was and I panicked and said I didn't know and ran off and now he's chasing us so c'mon we have to lose him!"

"You what? They're someone chasing us?!" Jack cast a quick glance over his shoulder to check, but couldn't see anyone through the jungle of flashing lights and games machines. "Well, what's your plan now?"

"Dunno, but we're running for now!" He panted, almost breaking down the glass panelled door leading out onto the balcony as they crashed through it. Feet pounded on the planks that made up the floor. Similarly to the promenade, the floor was littered with name plaques which clacked under their feet as they ran to the end of the long balcony and ducked under a table. "We can hide here for a sec, he shouldn't follow us for too long…" Hiccup said in a breathy whisper.

Jack didn't speak for a moment, trying to get his breath back while the two of them stared at the door they'd burst out of. If the employee were to come through it, he'd see them straight away.

It was very quiet out on the balcony deck. Besides the crashing of the waves below them and the occasional squawk of a seagull flying overhead, all Jack could hear was his and Hiccup's breathing.

And it was then, in the silence of the moment, that Jack looked down and realised they were still holding hands.

Cheeks suddenly beginning to feel very hot Jack decided not to say anything. He was going to see how long he could get away with it before Hiccup noticed and inevitably let go.

"How long d'you reckon we should hide for?" Hiccup asked after another awkward quiet minute, shifting a little but still not letting go. "My foot's kinda gone to sleep…"

"Give it a bit longer. Look, the ball's right there. He'll probably see it at some point and come to the door to get it." Jack saw that the basketball had apparently been caught in the jetstream of their running because it was there, by the glass door, bumping against it rhythmically as it used up its remaining momentum.

Sure enough, a few seconds later, the employee appeared on the other side of the door, picked up the ball and only paused for a brief period, looking confused, before turning back and disappearing again.

"Phew…" Hiccup let out a breath he'd apparently been holding. Jack let out a little laugh of relief too, and let his head drop a little.

"Well, we probably shouldn't go back in there for a while, eh?" Hiccup shot Jack a little sideways smile as they clambered out from under the table. "Let's give that hothead a few minutes to cool off."

Jack laughed and nodded in agreement, straightening up and looking out to the sea behind them. The sky had started to cloud over a little, giving the water weird striped patterns and making the waves look a lot bigger. A lot scarier

"Woah, that escalated quickly…" Hiccup came up to stand beside Jack, leaning over the railings and watching the shadowy water crashing up against the support beams of the pier. "Looks like a storm down there."

"Yeah…" Jack followed Hiccup's gaze down to the support beams and actually started to feel a little dizzy. After all, looking down and suddenly realising that all that's holding you up from a dark swirly sea is a few several metal beams and a wooden floor can be pretty terrifying. He stepped back a little, trying not to make it too obvious what he was doing.

"You okay?" Hiccup turned to him, looking concerned.

Shit.

"Y-yeah, just uh…" He had to stop himself there, not knowing how to phrase his sentence without sounding stupid. "I'm uh, not a big fan of water."

"What? Like on a phobia level?" Hiccup stepped closer and tilted his head.

"Something like that yeah…" Jack looked down, feeling embarrassed. "No idea why. I just can't deal with big expanses of water like that, and being so close."

"Jack, why did you agree to come meet at the pier then?" Hiccup sighed, but still smiling.

"It's okay when we're inside, 'cos I can just imagine it's a regular building. It's just walking along the promenade and standing out here by the edge that freaks me out." He explained, taking another quick glance at the balcony railings and immediately looking away again.

"D'you wanna go back inside then?" Hiccup held out his hand for Jack to take. But Jack shook his head.

"No, don't let me and my stupid fear ruin the day. Besides we need to hide from that guy for a little longer, right? Let's just uh, not stand right by the edge and I'll be fine."

"You sure?" Hiccup asked.

"Yeah. Positive." Jack nodded, and took Hiccup's hand anyway, pulling him further onto the deck, away from the railings. "C'mon, we've got some dinosaurs to name!"

The two of them sat at one of the many cheap metal tables on the deck and Jack emptied the dinosaurs out of his bag onto the surface.

"Well well, what have we here?" Hiccup picked up two of the dinosaurs and turned them over in his hands. "This one's a stegosaurus and this one's… an allosaurus I think."

"How the heck d'you know that?" Jack asked, impressed.

"I used to be- am a massive dinosaur nerd. I used to want to be a paleontologist. I guess I just really liked the idea of giant lizards roaming the earth all those millions of years ago. Funny how times change, huh?" He sighed, and then picked up another of the dinosaurs. "This one's easy though. It's a…?"

"Triceratops?" Jack guessed.

"Correct. Now this one?" Hiccup held up another.

"I dunno man, I just know the famous ones Y'know, t-rex, triceratops, pterodactyl… That one looks like an oversized turtle."

"This one's a euoplocephalus."

"Nerd." Jack coughed.

"Whatever."

"And this one?" Jack held up the last one, a weird looking ostrich-looking kind of thing.

"Ornithomimus." Hiccup mumbled.

"Gesundheit."

"No, that's the name of it." Hiccup chuckled, "Then again…" He turned the toy over in his hands a few times, examining it, "It could be a struthiomimus, or a gallimimus. Hard to tell."

Jack stared at him, mouth agape. "Wow…"

"Okay okay, I'm an epic dinosaur nerd, but c'mon, it's your job to actually name them."

"Why's it my job?"

"Because you won them." Hiccup held up the ornithomimus and squeezed its belly a few times, "So what's this little guys name them?"

Jack paused for a second. "That's a big responsibility, Hiccup. I don't know if I trust myself with such a big part of this things life." He stroked his chin in mock deep thought. "What did you say it was again?"

"An ornithomimus." Hiccup repeated, tilting his head and resting his elbows on the table, still holding the toy up.

"Hmm… Nigel." Jack announced.

"W-what?" Hiccup's arms fell flat on the table as he shook with silent laughter. "Nigel? That's so random."

"Is random a bad thing?"

"No no, I love it. Nigel the ornithomimus." Hiccup turned Nigel around to face him and just the sight of Hiccup going slightly cross eyed to stare into its face made Jack laugh.

"Okay okay, let's sit Nigel over here then." Hiccup pushed him over towards Jack, so he was sitting up in front of him. "How about our triceratops?"

Jack tilted his head and shut one eye, squinting at the dinosaur before shrugging, "What about Theo?"

Hiccup's smile widened. "Did you just come up with that on the spot?"

"Guess so…"

"That's so weird. I used to watch this TV show about dinosaurs and one of the trikes on there was named Theo."

"It's just a very trike-y name then, I guess." Jack took the toy from Hiccup and looked it over, twiddling its stubby legs between his fingers. "You name the next one." He said, pointing to the weird turtle looking dinosaur, which was currently on its back.

"You want me to name the euoplocephalus? Oh Jack, I'd be honoured." Hiccup said and then paused, eyebrows scrunching up for a second, "That's gotta be the weirdest sentence I've ever said in my life."

"Probably the weirdest sentence I've ever heard in my life, to be honest." Jack grinned.

Hiccup looked at Jack for a moment, and Jack was sure if there wasn't a chair under him, his legs would've given out under him. Damn, was Hiccup gorgeous… Especially when he was being such a nerd and getting all excited over naming some stuffed dinosaurs.

"Henry sound good?" Hiccup asked, "Y'know, since we're sticking with pretty normal names."

"Henry the euop- euoploc-" Jack frowned at the tabletop, trying to remember how to pronounce it, before giving up. "Henry the turtle dinosaur. I like it."

"Henry the euoplocephalus. Got a nice ring to it, yeah… Okay, your turn again." Hiccup held up another of the dinosaurs. One with large plates coming out it's back. "What're you gonna name the stegosaurus?"

"He looks like a Thomas." Jack said quickly.

"Thomas the stegosaurus." Hiccup chuckled. "Jack, dude, you should seriously consider doing this as a job. You come up with the best names."

"And what job would that be?"

"I dunno… didn't think that one through really. But you're so good at it."

Jack watched as Hiccup's face began to go slightly red.

"Okay. Now this one." Jack picked up the final dinosaur and stood it up on it's two legs, facing Hiccup. "It's a t-rex, right?"

"Allosaurus actually, but they're pretty much the same… This one's easy-" He stopped suddenly, stifling a laugh with his hand.

"What?"

"Sorry, it's just, he looks so derpy from this angle."

Jack turned the allosaurus around so it was facing him and couldn't stop his own laugh from erupting at the stupid sight. It's mouth was made so it was wide open and it's eyes were cartoon style googly ones that looked hysterical from the front angle.

"Anyway, this one's easy. He should be called Allan. Y'know, 'cos he's an allosaurus."

"Genius." Jack clapped and then moved the dinosaurs so they were all standing in a line. "So who have we got here? Allan the…"

"Allosaurus." Hiccup filled in.

"Henry the…"

"Euoplocephalus."

"Thomas the…"

"Stegosaurus."

"Nigel the…"

"Ornithomimus."

"And Theo the triceratops! Yeah, I know that one!" Jack scooped Theo up and hugged him, grinning from ear to ear.

"Damn…" Hiccup sighed.

"What?" Jack stopped hugging the toy and looked at Hiccup curiously.

"Nothing. Just, that was unbelievably adorable."

Jack's breath seemed to catch in his throat for a second. "H-huh?"

"I said, that was really cute."

For a few moments that seemed to last for a few hours, Jack just stared at Hiccup. Stared at his freckled, (he now noticed) slightly stubbly, face, that was also staring back at him, and the two of them stayed like that, simply taking in the minute details of each others faces, until Hiccup finally spoke.

"Wanna head back inside?"

"No…" Jack replied, confidence somehow building inside him.

Hiccup's wonky smile returned and he shifted in his seat, "Me neither."

Jack wasn't sure what to do so he just carried on staring at the other boy, waiting for something to happen. And when it finally did, boy, was he surprised…

Hiccup

He wasn't sure what had sparked up inside him to make him do it, but it just seemed like the right moment. Never taking his eyes away from Jack's, he stood and walked around the table to where the white-haired, dinosaur-clutching boy was sat, looking slightly apprehensive up at him.

Before his brain could talk him out of it, Hiccup put his crazy idea into action. He crouched until his head was level with Jack's and after a quick gasp from Jack, kissed him.

He heard the stuffed triceratops fall to the wooden planks as Jack's arms went limp. He'd closed his eyes and was furrowing his eyebrows, and to Hiccup's surprise, seemed to be leaning further forward, pushing their lips together, deepening the kiss.

Hiccup had only meant for it be a quick peck. After all, it was only their first date (was it a date?). But Jack didn't want to pull away and each time their lips began to grow apart, Jack pushed himself into it again.

Not that Hiccup minded that at all, of course…

Hiccup shut his eyes too now, and allowed himself to melt into the moment, feeling Jack's hands climbing up Hiccup's shoulders and along his neck. They kept travelling upwards until they'd slid under his beanie and nestled in his thick hair. At the same time, Hiccup wrapped his arms around Jack's small waist, pulling him closer.

At this, Jack gasped a little, and Hiccup took the opportunity to take their embrace even further, allowing his tongue to slide in through open lips . As their tongues danced around each other, Hiccup could taste the vanilla of the ice cream they'd eaten earlier and chuckled slightly, the sound muffling against Jack's lips.

All too quickly though, Hiccup felt Jack retreating and opened his eyes. Jack was covering his mouth with the back of his hand, his face turning bright red. He was avoiding Hiccup's eyes.

Hiccup stepped closer, placing a hand on his shoulder tentatively, "You okay?"

"That was…" Jack mumbled into his sleeve. Hiccup braced himself. "That was… amazing." He turned around to look at Hiccup finally, and there were tears in his eyes and the biggest smile on his face.

"Glad to hear it." Hiccup couldn't help but mirror the expression on Jack's face as he held out his hand. With a wink, he continued. "There's plenty more where that came from if you answer this question correctly. Jack Frost, will you be my boyfriend?"

Jack's eyes widened for a second before he seized Hiccup's hand and stood up. "Yeah, why not?"

…

 **Urgh, cringey kissy kissy scenes! Not nearly as much fun to write as they are to read, lemme tell you.**

 **Thanks for reading xx no shoutouts this time but I'll give out double love next time!**


	14. Drifting in Every Sense

**Kay... so here we are. 4 months later... I'm so sorry. But this is a long one for you. Almost double the usual chapter length, so really, it's more like a two month wait for each chapter, split into two? Kinda... whatever, enjoy...**

...

Jack

Hands close, faces even closer, the two boys danced around the balcony. There was no music, but they didn't need any. They were dancing to the waves. The steady crash and roll of the water created their melody as it struck and splashed against the support beams.

Nigel, Theo, Allan, Henry and Thomas watched from the tabletop.

Jack's mind was racing. Fireworks had exploded at the moment their lips met, and even now, a strange crackling sensation was still there. He could hear his heartbeat, or was that Hiccup's? His head was so close to Hiccup's neck and chest that it could easily have been either. As they continued to sway and dance around the balcony floor, Jack couldn't keep his mind on track. He kept weirdly going into a daze and finding himself lost in his own thoughts.

Firstly, this was it. He was out there. He had a boyfriend… Jack said that phrase over and over in his head until it stopped making sense anymore. But yet, it still sounded so right.

His face fell. His friends may have been ignorant sometimes, but they sure as hell weren't stupid. There was no way he was going to be able to keep this secret from them… Sure, he'd tell Tuff. He was his best friend after all. But Jack didn't want to think about what the others would say or think…

Jack had a _boyfriend._

"Jack?" Hiccup said after administering a few unresponsive taps to his shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah, it's just, this is…" He didn't know how to word this feeling.

"Tell me how you're feeling, Jack. Is this good? Bad?"

"It's complicated."

"What's complicated?" Hiccup was holding Jack's shoulders still, staring intensely into his eyes. "Whatever it is that's worrying you, we can sort it out."

Jack shrugged. "No, you can't really… It's something that I have to…" He trailed off, again, not knowing how to phrase it.

Hiccup raised an eyebrow, but then a look of comprehension crossed his face. "Jack, is this your first relationship?"

"Wha-? No. Dude, I'm nineteen." Jack spluttered.

"Okay okay, just asking. So what is it?"

Jack bit his lip. "Well, it's my first time being with another guy…"

"That's it?" Hiccup looked surprised, but also relieved. "Damn, I was getting scared that you already had a partner and you were cheating or something. Everyone has to have a first though, right? So have you had many girlfriends before?"

"Are exes really the best topic to discuss on a first date?" Jack smirked, taking a step to the side and starting up a new waltz for the two.

"No, I guess not." Hiccup looked down. "Oh but c'mon, I'm nosey."

Jack laughed at the silly face Hiccup was pulling and then frowned, trying to think back as far as he could. "Well, technically I got married to a girl in my class in second grade. Is that a problem?"

"I don't see a ring."

"Well, we unofficially broke up after she started playing kiss chase every day with some kid called Jim. I was heartbroken to say the least. I think I actually stayed home for a few days because I was so distraught."

"What a cheater." Hiccup smirked. "Any other heartbreakers I should know about?"

"Well, I dated a few girls in middle school, and one in secondary school, but they were all just like two week tops kinda things…"

"So the last time you dated someone was in secondary school?"

Jack nodded, the realisation of how long that had actually been just starting to dawn on him, "Damn, that's almost four years…"

Jack took a few seconds just looking at the ground, shocked at that fact, before glancing up again to see Hiccup smiling. "Well, what about you then? Any evil exes I need to watch out for?"

"Nah, no evil ones…" Hiccup laughed, leaning back in his chair and directed his eyes up to the clouds. "Believe it or not, I've only actually had two partners before. Both guys and both douchebags in the end."

Jack didn't know what to say, so he kept quiet.

"So you've never dated a guy before, but you're definitely not straight? Are you bi or…?" Hiccup tilted his head, but remained staring at the sky.

"No, I'm not bi. Or straight." Jack gulped down a huge lump in his throat. "I'm definitely gay. I just- I guess I didn't believe I was, or I didn't want to believe I was."

"Why?" Hiccup asked after a few seconds.

"Uh, I dunno, I guess I just- my friends aren't really- they wouldn't-"

"I get it. Coming out is hard." Hiccup paused for a moment, a small smile creeping up on his face, "Heh, as far as my Dad knows, I'm straight as a ruler and currently living with my 'girlfriend', Heather."

"Really?" Jack asked, eyebrows scrunching up. "How'd you get away with that?"

"Well, I don't really speak to him that much anymore. Only on Christmas and my mum's birthday really…" He shrugged. "Heather's not my girlfriend by the way. She's actually just a girl from my work, but she's in on it. Y'know, whenever Dad calls, wanting to meet up with his 'future daughter-in-law', she comes up with an excuse and talks to him on the phone for me. She's cool… My Dad's a bit of a prick actually."

"Oh."

"Damn, I'm sorry. Way to put a downer on the atmosphere, eh?" Hiccup laughed. "But anyway, uh, so you're not out to anyone at all?"

Jack swallowed. "Uh, no, not yet really. I mean I kinda told my best friend, but he, well I think he already knew, which is weird 'cos he's not really the perceptive type." He paused, lips scrunching up for a second. "Actually now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure all my friends know…"

"What makes you say that?"

"They're not stupid…. And out of all the girls in our group, none of them ever treat me like they do with the rest of the guys. Y'know, they're the tough lads and I'm always the 'sensitive' one."

"Nothing wrong with that, is there?"

"No, guess not."

The two spent another five minutes or so talking and laughing at the derpy ornithomimus before heading back inside. Jack's bag could only fit two of the dinosaurs safely so between them, they had to carry Theo, Tom and Nigel back through the pier arcades. This definitely earned them several confused and mesmerised stares from parents with small children. Luckily, as they walked through the games and rides, they didn't see the security guard anywhere. He must've gotten bored of looking for them.

"Wanna go on any rides before we go?" Hiccup asked, once they'd reached the center of the arcade and could see everything all around them.

Jack thought for a second, gripping his shoulder strap and turning his head owlishly, looking at all the rides. "Hmm, how about the go-karts?" He said after a while, pointing with his eyes up at the race track that ran past over their heads.

"Of course you'd pick the furthest one to get to…" Hiccup sighed, but Jack could tell he was joking as he shifted the two dinosaurs in his arms and held out his hand for Jack to take. "C'mon then."

It took three escalator rides and a long walk around the top floor of the three storey pier to get to the queue for the go-kart track, and even when they did, they had to wait for another ten minutes in said queue. Hiccup chatted animatedly to the woman running the ride while Jack leaned on the railings, watching the cars speed past at insane speeds every thirty seconds or so. The track wasn't very long so it took about half a minute for each kart to do a lap, and Jack soon found himself keeping time of a particular green car as it was driven around and around by a guy with brown hair and big, round glasses.

32 seconds.

The car zoomed off for another lap.

30 seconds.

Another lap.

29 seconds.

Off he went again.

36 seconds.

Hmm, what had happened that time around?

He was about twenty seconds into the next lap when Hiccup tapped his shoulder.

"Huh?"

"C'mon, it says we can get into the cars now." He was gesturing to a glowing sign above the line of cars which was flashing with the words, _Get ready to race!_

There were nine go-karts altogether ready to go, and Hiccup and Jack clambered into the third and fourth ones. Strangely enough, Hiccup's was blue with a number 18 painted on it and Jack's was green with a number 22. In front of Jack was Hiccup's car, then two more, containing the two halves of a couple who were waving and laughing to each other from their seats.

Jack waved as Hiccup turned around and grinned at him.

"Seatbelt!" Jack called, and Hiccup's face disappeared again as he did it. Jack strapped his own seatbelt on and then waited, staring up at the sign, which was flashing with a red traffic light sign, as the other cars from the previous race came back into the line up beside them. The guy Jack had been timing pulled up beside Hiccup and as the man climbed out of the green car, he gave the two of them a thumbs up.

"The race will be starting in 3, 2…"

Oh god, Jack wasn't ready. He gripped the steering wheel and ghosted his foot over the gas pedal, ready for the green light.

"...1! Go!"

The three cars ahead of Jack revved loudly and sped off up the starter hill, Jack following closely. In all honesty, he'd been expected the cars to be a little faster. His wish was suddenly granted however, when he finished his first lap and saw the woman running the ride press a button on her control panel. Every car on the track was immediately struck with a burst of extra speed and they shot off, some spinning out of control at the random acceleration. Jack passed the car that had been in first place, which was stuck bonnet-first in a bed of tyres. Now it was just him, Hiccup and the other car in front. He could hear the five other engines roaring behind him, but paid them no mind.

If there was one thing Jack was good at, it was racing, be it on Mario Kart or an actual track like this.

Approaching the first big corner, he drifted effortlessly around it, failing to stifle a smug grin when a few people stood in the queue stared with open mouths.

Hiccup's bumper was getting closer and closer. Each turn brought it a few feet back, and finally on the corner that had spun out the first car, Jack managed to sidle his car right up next to Hiccup's.

"Hey there!" He called, giving a little salute as he floored the gas and boosted away from his boyfriend.

"What? How did-?!" Hiccup yelled, but his cry fell on deaf ears as Jack sped away, gaining more and more distance away from Hiccup.

Only one guy left ahead of him now…

He could win this.

Jack floored the gas, seeing the corner ahead of him getting closer and closer. He had a plan. It was a risky plan, for sure, but if he did it right, he'd win this race in the most epic way possible. As he continued to hurtle down the track at the same speed as the car in front, Jack's mind was whirring, trying to pinpoint the perfect moment to execute his idea. Then it hit him.

The first corner. It was definitely wide enough for Jack to overtake, but that wasn't what he wanted to do, no. Jack needed to undertake this sucker. He'd never see that coming. In theory, if Jack was to undertake him on the left as the corner took them right and then pass him on the right when he tried to get himself going straight again. The maths sounded impossible, but imagining it in his head, it also sounded freaking awesome. Like something out of an action movie, but without the explosions… hopefully.

"Three." Jack counted down, narrowing his eyes at the back of the guys kart. "Two." He swerved a little to the left, readying himself to undertake. "One!" And Jack floored it as the other racer braked for the corner.

"-the hell?!" Jack heard him yell as he passed him effortlessly and drifted down the ramp past the queue again. More open mouthed stares followed him and a few of the spectators even cheered and clapped for him. Jack laughed and couldn't get rid of the shit eating grin off his face as he continued to hurtle around the track at a breakneck speed. The racer he'd stolen first place from was still hot on his tail, sending plenty of choice insults his way, none of which were suitable for young ears. Glancing over his shoulder at the guy, Jack was slightly surprised when he was met with the glaring face of a large man in his thirties, maybe older, with a potato shaped head and ratty features.

"Final lap!" The woman running the ride announced over the megaphone and to Jack's dismay, his kart suddenly slowed down to the same speed it had been going when they'd first started. He started to zigzag across the track, in an attempt to keep the Ratman from overtaking, but it seemed like his kart had been slowed down too because he didn't pass.

Eventually, Jack pulled himself into the starting bay, in first place, and unclipped his seatbelt. As he waited for the announcement telling them it was safe to get out, he waved to the people queueing, who were still cheering for him. Jack briefly wondered what place Hiccup had come in, when they were told to exit the starting bay. He climbed out of the kart, nearly forgetting his phone when it fell out of his pocket and onto the seat, and looked back for Hiccup.

There, just one behind Ratman. He'd come third. Nice!

Speaking of Ratman though…

He was fixing Jack with such a glare that Jack actually felt a shiver run down his spine as he stepped aside to let him pass. Either his shoulders were broad beyond his control or he was just an asshole, because as he passed, he barged hard right into Jack, nearly knocking him back onto the track.

"Hey Jack, y'alright?" Hiccup caught his arm and helped to pull him upright again, sending Ratman's back a dirty look. "What a dick. But dude, you seriously thrashed it out there. How are you so good at this?"

"Dunno, everybody's good at something, right? Guess this is my thing…" Jack tried to laugh it off too, but what that guy did was really bothering him. He watched the back of his head disappear through the crowd as he stormed off and seemed to head straight for the exit to the promenade.

"Hey, excuse me?" Jack's attention was snapped back by a voice, the ride operator lady's, "You just broke the all time track record! Congratulations! You've earned a place up on the records wall." She gestured to a dry-wipe leaderboard behind her. "Can I take your name?"

"Uh- Jack. Jack Frost." He stammered, unsure whether to be pleased or worried still, about Ratman, who could now potentially have access to his name.

"Jack, that's awesome!" Hiccup chattered excitedly as they left the track and headed down to the ground level. "I didn't even know there was a leaderboard, but you're on it now, and that's really cool!"

"Yeah, it is." Jack tried to sound enthusiastic, but he couldn't keep the crack out of his voice. Truth be told, he was freaking out about that guy. On the track, he'd been super confident. In his element. Untouchable. But now, without the defense of the metal go kart and energy that seemed to come from being there, Jack was back to being his anxious, awkward self. He was secretly praying that he wouldn't bump into Ratman again while they were here, because a confrontation with that guy, not on the race track, definitely wouldn't end well for Jack.

"Hey." Jack was anchored back to the world by Hiccup's hand sliding into his, fingers curling together as they walked. "Don't worry about that guy. He's just a jerk with nothing better to do than beat teenagers at funfair games. And he couldn't even beat you, could he?"

"Exactly." Jack grumbled, but squeezed Hiccup's hand tighter anyway. "Thanks."

"You still got our dinosaurs?" Hiccup tilted his head towards the bag as they boarded the escalator down.

"Yup, all five." Jack counted and then struggled for a few seconds to close the bag again, almost tripping up at the bottom of the stairs in the process. "Smooth…"

"Where to next, then?" Hiccup asked when they'd reached the front doors, and were looking out onto the promenade back to the town. "I could totally go for lunch now if you're up for it?"

"Lunch sounds like a good plan." Jack nodded, checking his phone for the time. But- "Wait, shit, where's my phone?"

"What?"

"My phone. It was in my pocket, and now it's gone!" Jack threw his bag off and started rummaging through it, patting down all his pockets and getting himself into a bit of a frenzy trying to find it. "I can't find it!"

"Where did you last have it?" Hiccup gripped Jack's hand again, effectively calming him down a little.

"Um, I nearly left it on the kart seat, but I picked it up and put it in my jean pocket," he tapped the pocket again, "And now it's not there!"

"Okay okay. Calm down. Panicking isn't going to help at all. We'll find it. We'll just retrace your steps."

Jack nodded. "Right, Okay. Yeah… What is the time anyway?"

"Almost four thirty. Don't worry, there's still half an hour until the pier closes. We'll find your phone."

"Yeah."

"Okay. We'll have a better chance of finding it if we split up, y'know, cover more ground? I'll head up to the race track again and talk to the ride operator, see if she found anything. You retrace your steps on this floor and the escalator. Look everywhere. If you did drop it, it might've been kicked somewhere or pushed under a game machine or something. Meet back here in fifteen minutes unless one of us find it, yeah?"

Jack nodded, impressed by Hiccup's authority in the situation. "Okay. See you in a bit then."

Hiccup gave his hand one last squeeze and then dashed off up the escalator to the top floor, leaving Jack on his own.

With a bag full of dinosaurs…

"Okay. C'mon, Jack. Retrace your steps." He mumbled to himself as he started walking back the exact route they'd taken on their way down from the go karts. Whenever he got to a machine, he bent down to check underneath it, but every time, found nothing.

Jack simply couldn't comprehend how he'd managed to lose his phone. He always kept it in his back jean pocket, and it never ever fell out, so why would it today of all days? Unless-

Unless it didn't fall out. Unless it was taken out by someone. Someone who'd bumped into him, hard, and on purpose. Ratman.

"Shiiiit." Jack hissed under his breath, scanning around, looking for any sign of the potato shaped head. He could be outside…

Where the water is. Jack paused halfway through a step as the thought came flooding over him. Out on the promenade, he'd been scared shitless of standing anywhere near the edge of the pier. Having Hiccup with him had been the only thing keeping him grounded and clear of having some form of breakdown right there and then. He wasn't sure he could go out there on his own.

But for his phone…

No, screw the phone, Jack needed to get over himself here. There was nothing wrong with water. It's not like he was gonna get anywhere near it anyway. The pier itself was raised about thirty feet above the sea level. And it wasn't even that deep.

He didn't think so, anyway.

Gathering up his bag and dinosaur backup, Jack headed swiftly for the side door, where he could see nothing but blue for miles. Ugh…

Stepping out onto the promenade, he glanced about. And there they were.

Damn it, why did he have to be right about Ratman?

He was there, leaning up against the railings over the water, with two other guys just as big and rodent-resembling as him. And they were all looking at Jack. Even at this distance, Jack saw Ratman raise an eyebrow as he pulled a phone from his pocket and began playing with it.

 _His_ phone. That bastard.

Ratman said something, but the wind, which seemed to have suddenly picked up dramatically, blocked off any sound.

"What?" Jack called, taking a few steps closer to them, completely taken aback by his own courage.

Ratman smirked and held the phone up. "This what yer lookin' for?"

"That's mine." Jack was only a few meters from the men now, and the height difference between them and him was extremely apparent now. They all had at least a foot and a half on him. "Give it back." Jack tried to sound confident, but every syllable shook.

"Or what?" Ratman sneered.

"Or…" Jack trailed. Fuck. What was he doing? Ratman's goons had taken Jack's moment of confusion to circle back around him and now he was stuck in a triangle, surrounded by the guys. "Or uh-"

"That's what I thought." Ratman laughed. "Okay, now here's what's gonna happen here. You're gonna give us yer bag and any cash you've got on you, and we're not gonna beat you to next week. That sound fair to you?"

"Oh fuck…" Jack breathed, his voice trembling horribly. Before he had a chance to say anything though, he'd had his legs kicked out from under him and one of the guys had ripped his bag away from him. Jack landed hard on his back on the wooden planks, and barely had time to open his eyes again before a sharp pain erupted from his side. After landing a few kicks to Jack's stomach to shut him up, Ratman pulled Jack up by the hair and covered his mouth with his giant hand, gripping his neck with the other hand while the other two rummaged through his bag.

Jack could feel hot tears forming in his eyes, but refused to let them fall. His stomach felt like it was on fire and he was shuddering with every tiny breath he managed to draw in through that meaty hand over his face.

"He ain't got much, Yama. Twenty quid and a load of stuffed toys." One of the guys reported, turning his bag upside down and letting the contents scatter out onto the planks. Out came five dinosaurs, his wallet, keys, headphones and- "Well well, what's this?"

Ratman- or Yama? Bent over and scooped up Jack's pen-knife, the one North had given him for emergencies, and flipped it open, brandishing the blade far too close to Jack's face for his liking.

"What's a scrawny little pussy like you doin' with a knife then, eh?" Yama hissed into his ear. "You could get hurt, y'know." He ran the blade gently along Jack's cheek, not hard enough to break skin. Jack was struggling violently now though, thrashing about and trying to scream and bite through the hand gagging him into silence. If he could get someone to hear him-

"Shut it!" Yama growled, and to Jack's horror, began dragging him across the promenade towards the railings.

"N- no, pl-s!" Jack cried, muffled by Yama's hand. Yama seemed to understand what Jack was so afraid of and a mean smile played on his lips as he lifted Jack clear off his feet and dangled his top half over the railings, above the crashing waves below.

"Aww, is the little pussy scared of the water?" He cackled, pushing Jack's head further down, so he was almost upside down over the edge.

Jack was trying his hardest not to pass out from fear. He had his eyes shut tight, but somehow, the sounds of the waves and the horrid salty smell of seawater just made him feel sick to his stomach, which was already in a lot of pain from being kicked in and then bent over a railing.

"Jack!" He heard a yell from somewhere behind him, or would that be, above him? He desperately tried to twist out of Yama's grip on his face so he could shout for help.

"Let go of him!" The same voice shouted again.

Finally, the sweaty hand released him, but unfortunately that meant that Yama was no longer supporting Jack's head and it fell further forward, smacking against the railings.

"Hic-! Help me!" He cried, blinking through a throbbing pain in his forehead. He couldn't see what was going on above him, but from the grunts and insistent swaying that seemed to be happening, Hiccup was putting up some kind of a fight for him.

"Jack, hold on!"

"-to what?!" Jack coughed in response as something wet filled his mouth. His vision went black for a second and he was only jolted back to sight when he felt his body lurch forward, and suddenly the hold on his legs vanished.

And he was falling.

Hiccup

A satisfying crack sound resonated from the first guys face as Hiccup's fist smashed into it, and at the same time, he delivered a hard kick to another who was trying to sneak up behind him.

"Jack, hold on!" he found the breath in him to yell out as he surged forward towards him and the huge man holding his legs.

"-to what?!" was the horrified reply, and Hiccup noticed with a jolt of panic that Jack's nose was bloody and his hair was beginning to turn red.

Hiccup's own vision turned red as he stared hard at this bastard still holding Jack over the railings. What the hell did he want with Jack? And what would he have done if Hiccup hadn't intervened?

"Don't move." The man, who looked remarkably like a rat, ordered. "One more step and I push him over." The man punctuated this threat by allowing Jack's legs to slip an inch or so through his arms.

Hiccup gasped as he saw Jack's eyes snap open and dart wildly about before-

"Shit-!" The guy cursed as Jack's legs fully fell through and over the edge of the balcony. Hiccup only had time to sprint forward and yell his name before Jack's scream was cut off by a chilling splash.

...

 **Is an explanation of my absence necessary? I think it probably is. I'm an adult now. I got a car for my 18th birthday. I got another job. I went on a school trip to London on the week of the Westminster attack. I went on a Harry Potter pub crawl. I became obsessed with the Gorillaz again. I started to doubt every plan I've ever had about my future. And I've realised that my 'friends' really aren't the nicest bunch of people.**

 **I've been busy. But I have a new computer now, courtesy of my awesome squeeze, so I don't really have an excuse now (other than that I'm not all that motivated to write these days).**

 **Hope you liked this one anyway, and pls drop me a review letting me know you all still exist. xx**


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